What good is the 2007 ribbon?

[brucemc]

Honest question.

I finally think the guts of 2007 are as good as can be, relatively speaking, so I am making the transition, but so far the ribbon looks like a big waste of space without any redeeming qualities, other than for people who do not know where to find commands having them all laid out in front of them where data could be. Is the ribbon just a gimmick to make more commands obvious to new users? I am VERY interested in knowing what qualities warrant the loss of real-estate. I see plug-ins to bring back the previous style, but if this "ribbon" actually has redeeming aspects I am ignorant of, I want to know before eliminating it and possibly later regretting the choice.

If it has no redeeming qualities - there are several alternatives, including those offered by our hosts here, spanning many other items in the MS Office suite - recommendations would then be appreciated.

 

[brucemc]

Actually that was a mistake by the VBA team. They didn't think anyone used it anymore and removed it without checking.

Ahhhhhhh. You mean with all those millions of scientific samplings that they took in order to no longer guess at what commands are used in order to design the new ribbon interface as referenced in the 8 part series I read from your link, they scientifically chose to relegate the VBE to old-school guesswork? Is it not as important as any of the other components in the suite???

 

[Greg Truby]

At first I was not a big fan of the ribbon either. As will probably be the case with almost everyone, my first experiences with the ribbon were on the office application I knew the best; in my case, Excel. It wasn't until I tried using Word 2007 and PowerPoint 2007 that suddenly I really started to like the ribbon - for *those* apps. I only use Word once in a while and with Word 2003 it was always a case where I was muttering "I *know* this flea-flickin' blankety-blankin' command is in here somewhere!" And it would take me forever to find it. Try using your least-known app (that has the ribbon) and see how you feel.

Mind you, I still hate the ribbon for Excel. Why? Not because of the interface itself, but rather because the development team that created it develoted 99.999999% of their time to the common users' needs and 0.000001% of their time (and that's probably a generous estimate) to the needs of developers to customize the ribbon using code.

But yeah, Smitty, I or any of the other MS MVP's that have seen Excel 14 & Excel 15¹ can attest to, you need to get used to the idea. It ain't gonna go away any time soon.

_________________________________________
Yes, we got to see it. No, we can't tell you anything about it, other than "it's got some pretty cool stuff in it."

 

[brucemc]

With that being firmly said, I guess my best response at this point is "OH GOODY! The ribbon has arrived!!!"

Maybe a dedicated "User experience" study of the MVP community might be a good idea???

 

[Smitty]

Maybe a dedicated "User experience" study of the MVP community might be a good idea???

Oh believe me, they got it (right between the eyes).

 

[Joe4]

Actually that was a mistake by the VBA team. They didn't think anyone used it anymore and removed it without checking. It will/should be back in Office 14.

Yeah, they made a few of those "bad" assumptions. Like assuming that no one uses the "Save As DBF" option anymore in Excel, so they go rid of that, which got plenty of people (including me) hopping mad. Only, I haven't seen anything that suggests that they will bring that functionality back.

 

[brucemc]

Uhg. Time to eat a little crow (that is something us old folks from the country sometimes say).

I went over to the MS Office 2007 training area and started on the lessons. Very nice, and I have a hard time stating so, but I have this feeling that is a lot like actually now being favorably impressed by 2007. There are significant keyboard shortcuts (they renamed even that, but that is still what the heck they are) so you can run quite a high degree from the keyboard, and easy to turn on the hints as to what keys to press. The "see what it looks like before changing" functionality is also more impressive than I thought it would be. I am disgusting myself as I am sounding like those bobble-headed MVPs that I think MS was paying off with favors to be air-headed cheer leaders promoting 2007 (and VISTA, which I firmly will not ever load on my machines again) when each was first released (I believe most MVPs are ethical, but I noticed some were promoting the two products upon initial release, and the only reason I can see for that is they have their noses way too far up MS's backside, probably hoping for some form of reciprocation).

Bottom line, though I believe practically everyone on this board to be more knowledgeable than I, if there are other hold-outs out there dropping in for an education as did I, USE THE MS TRAINING! In very short time you will find ways to make many of the 2007 changes palatable, and like it took me a couple times trying sushi before I liked it (what can I say, the girl I was dating at the time who liked sushi was hot), you might even come to like it...

Hopefully soon I will learn what good these other file formats to save in are good for and their respective limitations, such as binary, along with whom will they screw up if I save in those formats and send the workbook to a client/user/friend(or foe). I am still highly ticked off from the MS idea to improve security by scaring the heck out of users over macros as implemented back probably pre-2003, as any even marginally more complex spreadsheet solution will implement macros/code. It's like putting a door-handle on a door, then removing it, placing it in a separate bag and telling the new home owner to only install it if they want to allow the potential of a bad person using it. Morons. If you want to limit the scope of a feature's use then set the scope levels as options of perimeters of influence, not the on-off methodology they implemented. Ooooops, sorry, I got my soap-box out there for a moment and was starting to rant...

 

[Smitty]

I believe most MVPs are ethical, but I noticed some were promoting the two products upon initial release, and the only reason I can see for that is they have their noses way too far up MS's backside, probably hoping for some form of reciprocation

I think you'll find that most MVP's, especially the Excel group, are some of Microsoft's toughest critics. Reciprocity has nothing to do with it, at least from my standpoint.

 

[brucemc]

I believe that. It is what makes the questionable ones really stand out, especially when those few individuals have a blog or a newsletter...

 

[Greg Truby]

I am disgusting myself as I am sounding like those bobble-headed MVPs that I think MS was paying off with favors to be air-headed cheer leaders promoting 2007 (and VISTA, which I firmly will not ever load on my machines again) when each was first released (I believe most MVPs are ethical, but I noticed some were promoting the two products upon initial release, and the only reason I can see for that is they have their noses way too far up MS's backside, probably hoping for some form of reciprocation).

Ya know, I'm purdy sure that is the first time anyone has ever -- ever -- implied that Ken and Tushar are a pair of kiss-***es.

 

[brucemc]

Now, now...

Can't say that I know their work. What I can say is "If it walks like a duck, and talks like a duck, and looks like a duck..."