Classic style menus for Microsoft Office 2007
By Jonathan Schlaffer
It seems there are those diehard fans of the classic menu system available in Office 2003 and earlier. I would tell you the only reason to upgrade to Office 2007 is to experience the new ribbon interface which never ceases to impress but it is bound to confuse users used to the old menus and give new users something else to learn.
Enter Classic Menus for Office 2007. This add-on for Office 2007 only will bring back the classic menus that you know and love (or that someone does but I don’t). According to Computer World the $29.95 add-on produced by Addintools in Hai Nan, China will bring back a menu system reminiscent of Office 2003 to Office 2007. It would be one thing if it was free; it’s an entirely new animal when you have to pay for it.
Most are already paying upwards of $300 for Office 2007 but it can get as high as $600 or more for the three or four license editions. And now someone wants to sell you classic menus to replace the new interface that you just burned a large hole in your wallet for, this makes sense how?
If you like the classic interface just keep Office 2003 and get the Office Compatibility Pack which will enable Office 2003 to read, write, create and save files in the Office 2007 formats.
This is the first thing in a very long time I have seen that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. After all you are buying Office 2007 for the ribbon interface; it would be somewhat of a poor decision to replace that with a $30 classic menu add-on. Chances are that an older version of Office could be found lying around, preferably Office 2003 as Office 2000 will not run on Vista.
I guess it could come in handy if it would not be possible to grab a copy of Office 2003 but in my opinion it’s better just to get used to the new interface. I’d rather see an add-on for Office 2003 that provides users of that version with a ribbon-like interface (that is not likely to happen).
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April 14th, 2007
I tried a demo of Office 2007 and I saw no point in upgrading.
April 14th, 2007
I’d agree with you if you had to pay full price. If you can get it for free or at a discount then I’d say pick it up if it’s less than $100 for Enterprise.
May 25th, 2007
The Office 2007 is a big shit. I cannot find the options and the menu items, it became worse. Unfortunatelly I have to use it at my company.
August 6th, 2007
For advance user, download free addins for old menu-2003 in office-2007 from below site
http://in.geocities.com/shahshaileshs/
James
September 2nd, 2007
I made the mistake of purchasing 2007 sight unseen and now I’m stuck with this cutesie ribbon interface garbage.
I wish that there was a way that I could trade this in on a copy of 2003.
At least I was smart enough to order my new computer with XP rather than Vista or the whole thing would be useless.
September 10th, 2007
Not everyone buys Office 2007 or uses it because they want to.
Some corporate environments have moved to 2007 despite much protest from their users, especially the more experienced ones.
October 9th, 2007
I recommend that all MS Office users simply upgrade to Open Office. Here at work, we’ve all switched to Open Office. Not only is it easier to use, but it cost us nothing to setup and install. The $12400 that was saved went right into our pockets: every employee got an Open Office bonus of $250 in their paycheck last August, with an additional $1650 left over used to refurnish the office kitchen.
December 6th, 2007
As noted above - many people get Office 2007 because it’s what comes with their computers or because it’s what is inflicted upon them by their employers. And it takes very little skill with Google to show that a lot of users absolutely hate the Ribbon, even after giving it a chance - and the only response is “try it, you’ll like it the way I did.” As if there is some reason why I should care.
I second moving to OpenOffice. It has a lot of annoyance, but far less than continuing to deal with Microsoft’s increasingly-insane UI decisions.
March 8th, 2008
Computer Game Review - Innovations And Developments…
The continuing advances in graphics technology, platform gaming infrastructure, processor technology and innovations in design will see more aggressive developments in computer games this 2006….
March 20th, 2008
I DETEST the new 2007 ribbon interface. I’ve been using Office 2007 for a month and I still have to stop, think and hunt around to get Word to do what I want it to. I’ve been ‘unfortunate’ enough to have been using Word since version 2 in 1986 so the ribbon interface is completely baffling.
It wouldn’t be so bad but for two reasons: Office 2003 is very difficult to buy these days and you can bet that Microsoft will be itching to stop supporting it, forcing businesses to move up.
The useability of Office was possibly a contributing factor to it becoming the dominant software, but I wonder if the enormous size of Vista’s install and hardware requirements coupled with Office 2007’s alienation of a generation of users is the first sign of Microsoft losing their grip. 20 years from now will Microsoft’s operating system and Office suite be remembered in the same way as OS2, Wordperfect and Multimate?
May 5th, 2008
Well, Office 2007 does have some other improvements.. not just the ribbon. I had to move to Office 2007 for the better template support and that’s important for our team. It also exports better HTML (once stripped, that is).
The ribbon was nice at first. But it’s too limited for power users. Just when the going gets tough, the tough part is to find the command you want. The ribbon hides some command until you click on something related to it (like table formatting). The problem with this is that when you are not sure what object activates the option, you’ll be left hunting around the ribbon. At least, put a gray-out like the menu, then we know that it’s disabled - instead of looking around like mad.
The ribbon is a waste of time simply because you cannot customize it. If not, it’s more productive than menus. I end up using the quick toolbar more… What a waste of space especially on wide-screen notebooks. At least with the toolbars of 2003, you can put them on the side!