That Damned Ribbon!

[baldasacoot]

OK, I upgraded to Excel 2007 because I needed more than 64000 rows of data, OK, not because I wanted to have every last useful menu item hidden from me and a complete time-waster of a ribbon spewed across the top of the screen, OK? The ribbon is nothing more than an exploded toolbar/drop-down menu in any case and how can it tell the context of what I want to do? I can never find any of the uesful features I need and it's driving me insane... well, at least it drove me to consult this forum. I have a copy of a utility that uses the Windows 2000 toolbars, but I cannot install it on my PC at work.

I really need help with these:

Where is the HELP button?

Why are my VBA projects missing?

Where are my Macros?

Hell, for that matter, where are the Excel 2007 Macros?

How do I get rid of the ribbon and set up my own customised toolbars?

What's happened to the colour pallet? How do I get the real one back without all these new colours that are making me feel queasy? Especially the pastels?

Many Thanks

Comments/Observations

Everything was fine until Windows 95. Up until then, a computer knew it's place and programmers knew their place. A computer could do nothing without user input and did nothing until it was told to, and only did what it was told. Now we have all this so-called context-sensitive, reactive, pre-emptive, predictive nonsense trying to guess what I want instead of making it easy for me to tell it what I want. Computers finally have a mind of their own. Seattle has created a monster!

Cheers

baldasacoot

[Knife Party]

same here, i just can't be productive on Office 2007, went back to Office 2003, i'd give you the same advice

[richter]

Help - F1 or question mark next to minimize button in top right corner.

To get Developer tab, click the Orb (big round button with Office logo in top left corner), then Excel options button, under Popular tab select Show Developer tab in the Ribbon (will reveal in all Office apps). That will take care of what you need.

You can't get rid of ribbon. There is a 3rd part application which is supposedly emulating menus like in old versions. I am not aware how does it perform nor if menus are exactly like in old versions.

I think you can customize the Ribbon by editing some XML files. You should Google it though. I read about ribbon customization while Office was in beta.

Don't know about colors ATM.

Good luck.

Edit: Page Layout Colours? You can make your own color schemes easily.

[Pygmy_Hippo]

Thank God for that!!!!

I thought I was the only one who was having problems with the ribbon! All the reviews kept banging on about marvellous it is and how it made you more productive - I spend most of my time going insane trying to find basic commands to do the simplest stuff. Definitely thinking about going back to Office 2003 :yes:

[richter]

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchc...es/default.aspx

[Pygmy_Hippo]

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchc...es/default.aspx

Thanks for that - just a shame that it should be needed - wasn't the Ribbon designed to ensure easy access to all the commands rather than the nested tables of old? Probably just me being old and not being l33t enuff for teh nu office!! :D

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

http://www.officelabs.com/projects/searchc...es/default.aspx

Appreciated. Thanks you for posting this :)

[Rudy]

I find the ribbon helps people who have never used office before but anyone who used it for over 200hours will be confused and lost

[MightyJordan]

I find the ribbon helps people who have never used office before but anyone who used it for over 200hours will be confused and lost

I've used previous versions of Office for over 200 hours. I did find the ribbon confusing at first, but I got used to it after about an hour of use. It's pretty good.

[richter]

You're welcome. You're not alone. I've been using Office for a year now and hate the ribbon. It is confusing. I can do work in previous versions without even looking at the cursor. Finding specific command sometimes can be a bit frustrating. However, MS really did good work trying to make transition to go as smooth as possible. There are videos that explain how the Ribbon works. There is also a guide which lets you choose command in 2003 and it automatically shows you where that option is located in 2007. All is available from office.microsoft.com. It helped me a lot. I got used to it a bit, but still prefer the classic system. Needless to say that I hate when ribbon is used in other applications (zip utilities, defragmentation utilities, CAD software...)

[baldasacoot]

Well, I've used Office for over 10,000 hours, since Word 6.0 and Access 2.0, and I've endured many upgrades and I can tell you now, unequivocally and with complete certainty:

The Ribbon is Rubbish.

I've used the ribbon for about an hour and I can't even print, print preview, save as, change the borders, format a cell, or even find the Help menu. That's a steeper learning curve than flying an Apache helicopter! Half of the menus have disappeared. What's the point of it all? Thank God I still have 2003 on my machine.

In fact, I find that recent versions of Office are anti-productive, with all that crap popping up, interrupting me, telling me it looks like a number but it's formatted as text, "OH! You look like you're writing a letter! Would you like some help!", and "I can paste the data in any one of many numerous formats!", changing the case of letters when it''s meant to be PhD and it's supposed to be MDa etc, causing me to go back and change it, reformatting cells I've just formatted because IT thinks I don't know what I'm doing, all in all causing me to use three times the mouse clicks just to get back to point zero. The Ribbon is just the Ultimate Evolution of this anti-productivity: the "Alien Meets Predator" of the software world.

Anyone who claims it helps "productivity" must either be:

1 a completely novice new user who knows no better

2 a Microsoft employee in Lurk Mode

3 a Microsoft wannabe

4 someone who's getting their nose and tongue a little too close to the chocolate starfish of Bill Gate's puckered ring piece. :)

Has no one heard of customising your toolbars? You know, where you get the normal toolbars for Formatting, Borders and Shading, Drawing etc and remove the buttons you never use and add the ones you do. Voila! No need to search for anything at all until you need to do something you've never done before. I had dozens of complex, fifteen page Macros linked to toolbar buttons and now I can't even find them! And now I hear that you can't even edit the Ribbon without hacking some control file?

Anyway, thanks for everyone who's trying to help.

I can't go back to 2003 because I need a million rows of data, which I read was possible in Excel 2007. Actually, I need two million or more, but there you go (and no, I don't need a database for this, I need the data in a spreadsheet).

I can see the Help button now, but where is the Help menu? The one that used to be on the Toolbar?

I still can't find my Macros. What is the Developer? Is that where the Macros etc will be?

How am I supposed to know that that Orb thing does anything?

How am I supposed to know that the Developer tools are "Popular"? What a stupid filing system! Do they file Michael Jackson CDs under "P" for Pervert rather than "J" for Jackson?

By the colour pallette, I mean the colours for Borders and Shading (Oh, yeah, couldn't find that for ages, either). The one that has the nice colour set has been replaced with something that has horrible, dirty, dayglo or fluorescent versions of real world colours. I want the old ones back.

Anyway, keep it coming, if I can't find the equivalents of 2003 in 2007 I'll have to insist the IT department allow me to install that 3rd party toolbar utility. I don't bank on being successful with that.

Thanks

Baldasacoot

[Arielz]

I have to admit I hate the Ribbon as much as the next person who has spent hundreds of hours in Excel. I don't use it as extensively as I used to before - note I load my million by million tables in db and manipulate results using queries which are extracted to Excel and further processed by code. I'd be inclined to suggest the same thing I've already done, order a two good books for Excel 2007 - I find the 'Bible' series to be most helpful and then specifics I get off Amazon after reading what other folks bought and what they thought of it.

[S_Herbie]

Where is the HELP button?

Top right hand corner - same as in Office 2003

Why are my VBA projects missing?

Where are my Macros?

Hell, for that matter, where are the Excel 2007 Macros?

Did you install VBA when you installed Excel (it's not automatic anymore!)

How do I get rid of the ribbon and set up my own customised toolbars?

There are some add-ins, as others have suggested.

What's happened to the colour pallet? How do I get the real one back without all these new colours that are making me feel queasy? Especially the pastels?

The colour pallet was enhanced, you can customise this (the same as you could in Office 2003).

The number of toolbars in Excel 2003 was getting to be unmanageable - I have counted 129 in my installation! The ribbon does "take care" of this problem but it's not ideal...

I know that the ribbon takes a lot of getting used to, but it's not going anywhere for the foreseeable future.

[primexx]

the ribbon is awesome it just takes some a lot of getting used to. It's actually far more productive than the old interface because everything's right there instead of hidden under layers of menus. They did rearrange a lot of things and the search plugin would help the transition.

[Huleboeren]

Did you also stick with Windows 3.1? :s

Do you also return a car because it handles differently :p

"omg - change, LETS KILL IT :o"

Everything takes time, once you learn where stuff is in new office, its much better than the old interface - I use features I didnt even know was there now :)

[Borbus]

Gnumeric: http://www.gnome.org/projects/gnumeric/

Over 64000 rows, more accurate than Excel and free software!

[LunarFalcon]

I really liked the ribbon and wish it was used in Mac Office 2008

[C_Guy]

The ribbon is awesome, sorry you are having so much trouble adjusting. It took me awhile too but once I got the hang of it I realized it is easier and more intuitive than using a pull-down menu.

Everything that was under the menus is in the ribbon. If you can't find it, click on 'Help' and type in what you're looking for. The Help System is pretty good, it will show you where everything is.

We're glad to help but complaining to us won't change anything. You might want to offer Microsoft *constructive* feedback on your trouble with the new Office, as they are the only ones who can officially do something about it.

[bobbba]

Way to go grandads, did you hate the wheel this much as well?

[BajiRav]

In other words: Who moved my cheese? :p

No offence to OP but you should give it a fair shot. If you missed the help button, that means you arrived at the ribbon with a prejudice...?

[Borbus]

Way to go grandads, did you hate the wheel this much as well?

Please... Just because Microsoft come up with some bull**** new feature so they can take your money again it doesn't mean everybody has to like it. You don't think they implemented it for the good of Man did you?

[MtnDewCodeRedFreak]

I have used Office 2007 *ever since* November 19th, 2005 as I was a tech beta tester. I have gotten SO USED to the 2007 version that I just upgraded it on top of 2003.

[primexx]

Please... Just because Microsoft come up with some bull**** new feature so they can take your money again it doesn't mean everybody has to like it. You don't think they implemented it for the good of Man did you?

oh are you anti-microsoft too? every MS invention has to be evil and horrible, regardless of its actual merits right?

[Ironman273]

Over 10,000 hours using Office and you didn't bother to click on the Orb or check the blue question mark on the right? For shame...

[GreenMartian]

Where is the HELP button?

Why are my VBA projects missing?

Where are my Macros?

Hell, for that matter, where are the Excel 2007 Macros?

With the help of your newfound friend, the Help button, search for:

• Developer Toolbar
  
• Trusted Locations
  

How do I get rid of the ribbon and set up my own customised toolbars?

I have no clue how you can get rid of the ribbon, but you can set up your own "mini-toolbar".

[S_Herbie]

In other words: Who moved my cheese? :p

:laugh: