Show Office 2007 Who's the Boss

jcatcw writes "Microsoft knows how you like your Office Suite. You like Ribbons ... they're a given, right? Well, if not, Computerworld reviews some third-party packages that allow you to customize the software's interface. Classic Menu gives you an Office-2003-like set of menus. It'll help you navigate old menu structures to find favorite commands, but don't expect to use all the familiar keyboard shortcuts. ToolbarToggle lets you customize the menus. However, Classic Menu has two advantages over ToolbarToggle: It's available for PowerPoint today, and it includes Office 2007 commands on its menus, a modification you can't make to ToolbarToggle menus. RibbonCustomizer works within the Ribbon's own constraints to let you change the display of icons and commands on existing tabs or any new ones you create."

Comments

Man, just get used to it

[Overneath42]

Seriously, why do people fear change so much? The new Office design is much better than any previous version, in my opinion. No more hunting around in nested menus trying to find features - everything is right there in plain sight. Sure, there's a learning curve, but is it really so steep?

I think there are valid complaints about Office 2007 (namely, the new .*x format, which has tripped my fiancee up more than once in trying to print papers at school after typing them at home), but the design shouldn't be one of them.

Re:Man, just get used to it

[Poorcku]

this was the first Office UI change in how many years?

Re:Man, just get used to it

[icepick72]

Drop-down menus have been around so long because they work!

Actually, drop-down menus work because you got used to them and so did everybody else. Heck, I remember my first time using a mouse when it became widely available. You obviously got past that one, although from your post I'm not sure if it wasn't without complaining :) Nothing is intuitive at first. It's been so long you've forgotten how to accept change to your computer programs that's all. You can choose to forget how to adapt to change and rail against everything new. Won't be the only one.

Ah, Office - the Brazil of software

[rueger]

Although I keep defaulting back to MS Office - Open Office just isn't quite enough and isn't quite interchangable enough with people using Office - I still hate the the damned thing. It's like software designed by Terry Gilliam.

I hate the way it formats stuff whether I want it or not. I hate that it automatically changes URLs and e-mail addresses into links, even though I'm creating print documents. I REALLY hate that copied text from elsewhere is pasted in with whatever format it had elsewhere, not with the format of the text on the page that I'm editing.

And I hate that it is invariably difficult or impossible to turn this crap off.

I sincerely fear every new release of MS Office specifically because I need to beat it into submission to make it behave as if I'm in charge.

I don't even know what a "ribbon" is, but I'm sure that I'll hate that too.