Comments on: Forward, Into the Past

By: jamesthebod

jamesthebod — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 10:29:00 +0000

As someone who likes to use keyboard rather than the mouse for most tasks, the biggest absurdity in the 2007 ribbons, is when I type in something, like Alt + I, and a pop-up appears, “Office 2003 access key, continue typing…” WITHOUT giving a list of commands. This is infuriating – are we expected to remember every possible such command keystroke????

By: JJ

JJ — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 21:38:00 +0000

I just got a new computer at work with Office 2007 on it. I’m either going to ask our IT person to uninstall it and provide me with Office 2003 instead or to try the Classic Menus add-in. Microsoft is insane not to provide an option for classic toolbar menus… I’ve been using their products for a good 15 years and am extremely productive with the classic toolbar menus, and the new layout is like looking at a foreign language. Trying to learn a 2nd “language” and speak it fluently is a complete waste of my time.

By: Pistolprinsen

Pistolprinsen — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 20:38:00 +0000

Well, it’s not that the ribbons sucks, it’s just that you don’t have a choice!!!
Why on earth didn’t Microsoft provide a ways of selecting “Use ribbon or Toolbars/menus?”
Sure ribbons are great for the newbie, but being a little more advanced toolbars and menus are the only thing…
So, please, do keep the ribbons, but, PLEASE, allow the user to make his own choice weather to use them or not …

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 20:52:00 +0000

Gary -

Take it up with the ToggleToolbar authors:

http://www.toolbartoggle.com
mailto:support@toolbartoggle.com

By: Gary Campbell

Gary Campbell — Sun, 08 Jul 2007 11:55:00 +0000

I made a "HUGE" mistake and bought ToggleToolbar without trying the trial.

The program does not even install correctly. Now I can't get rid of it.

Every time I bring up Word Excel or PowerPoint it now tells me I have "x" days left in the trial period.

Then when it prompts me to enter the license key and says it is "checking" the serial # -- it promptly freezes the system --as another commenter said as cold "as Nebraska in January".

I have gotten numerous error messages in Office saying it has serious problems with the program.

There is no install info.

No help file.

And most importantly NO UNINSTALL OPTION !!!! God only know what traces this gem leaves behind.

I am out $19.95 and probably hours of work to get rid of this thing - if that is possible at all.

It is an absolute joke. Unfortunately not a funny one!

By: suhail

suhail — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 08:59:00 +0000

respected sir/madam

i m having 2003 office and my data is created in 2007office . the the problems is my system is not allow to open this file how can i openn this file in 2003 office .

By: Charles Steinhardt

Charles Steinhardt — Mon, 07 May 2007 13:20:00 +0000

Hi Dick,

As a former MVP myself, I really appreciate your knowledgebase, the time you give and your honesty. If it would be okay with you, I would just like to add some thoughts as well that may help.

1. We give away a FREE version called ToolbarToggleLite version which is the SAME as Classic Menus (free when you purchase ToolbarToggle Full). We have a downloadable demo of ToobarToggleLite too. ToobarToggleLite has the same placement on the Ribbon which you found appealing for its reduced screen real estate.

2. The screen real estate is easily easily modifiable in ToolbarToggle because the toolbars and buttons (together or individually) can be added, removed, changed, hidden, floated, docked anywhere. IMPORTANT: not only is ToolbarTgle’s default real estate configurable – but you can even save and restore MULTIPLE layouts which even Microsoft Office can’t do. On the other hand Classic Menus can NOT be modified or moved because these are static areas that still require mouse gymnastics when using the other Ribbon tabs.

3. The “Toggle” is accomplished via the Office menu or Ctrl+F1

4. The splash screen is our demo “nag” screen – which does not display in the purchased product.

5. The “frozen” experience was our checking for an update in the background – our “permission” request dialog was hidden behind your excel appearing as if it crashed. Our “bad”! We fixed this.

6. Because the menus and toolbars perform the same as what has been in the product for the last 10 years – we didn’t think people needed extensive demo time to decide if ToolbarToggle was benefifical or not. Though in that dialog you mentioned as “hideous”, we do have the option of assigning a code to extend the demo if one really needs it.

Unfortunately, and please don’t get upset at me for delivering the message but the toolbars are not coming back to office as far as Microsoft is concerned. Not in versions 14, 15 nor 24 nor ever. I am not advocating whether they should or shouldn’t – I am just letting people know.

The reason we developed ToolbarToggle is to give people interface choices – what to use and how to use the them. We wrote TolbarToggle to provide both the best of the Ribbon (and there are some excellent features in the Ribbon) AND provide some the convenience the Toolbars. Hopefully, we enable those who would not transition or would be reluctant to transition to the new Office. The point being – why should anyone not get the new benefits of Microsoft Office – the ribbon is just the interface.

Thanks for your dedication in this blog,
Charles

By: FSt1

FSt1 — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 01:16:00 +0000

me and spreadsheets go back. before windows…before the mouse. to a dos based lotus application. i got good but not great. then our company decided to upgrade the office people’s pcs. we in the warehouse were upgraded too. to their old machines. but i was excited. suddenly i had an ibm compatable with a 270 KB harddrive, 4 MB ram and windows 3.something. WHOA! i was uptown. that is when i found out that point and click was accually click and wait.
i went back to IT and asked for my old pc back. they told me “sorry. you’ve been upgraded.” that is when i realized the truth about upgrades. Just because you have been upgraded doesn’t necessarily mean you got something better….just something newer.
upgrades are driven by compitition and the companies need for repeat revenue. in the old days they called it “planned obsolesence.” we buy the new versions because of american’s obsession with “NEW! IMPROVED! WITH FEWER CRASHES THAN EVER BEFORE! Get your today!” we users spend a lot of time getting use to the new verison only to have the next version come out. we then spend weeks…months trying to figure out the new version.
i got use to click and wait and all of the previous verisons of lotus and excel and i suppose i will eventually get use to 2007. if i ever get it. i’m still using xp and not too sure i want to upgrade. i may even look for a xl2k version. hmmm. i seem to be going the wrong way. the real scary thing is that microsoft is working on “the next version.” Isn’t that nice.

By: Doug Glancy

Doug Glancy — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:06:00 +0000

Jan Karel,

Am I correct in thinking that you need to go through this process each time you update/modify your xla?

By: jkpieterse

jkpieterse — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 08:07:00 +0000

Doug:

I work on the xls versions of my add-ins in XL2003 or less. They contain all ribbonx code in a separate module, where I make sure all ribbonx related variables are declared "generic", i.e. as Object or as variant.

Then when done I do a save-as to .xla for pre-xl2007 users. I then open the xls in Excel 2007, save-as .xlam.

Last step is to open the xlam file in a ribbon customising tool, paste in the ribbon xml from an older xlam and add icons where needed.