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

[Borbus]

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

You say every MS invention as if they have actually invented a lot... They are bad for the community if they keep them closed and proprietary anyway.

[Linkinfamous]

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.

Are you serious?

Print/Print Preview/Save As are all in the big orb at the top left.

The first time you started Excel, it should have been glowing, and doing something annoying like saying "CLICK ME!"

Borders are right on the home tab, under the font size.

Cell formatting can be done either by right clicking on the cell and choosing "Format Cells" or by looking right on the Home ribbon where it says "Cells" on the right, and noticing the big-ass icon labeled "Format".

As for help, it's right up at the top right, the white question mark in a blue circle, which is the standard for "help".

You should have been able to every single one of those in about 45 seconds total. They're all right in front of you..

[primexx]

You say every MS invention as if they have actually invented a lot... They are bad for the community if they keep them closed and proprietary anyway.

Apple is so much better isn't it?

[KnightWolf]

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...?

"mmm.. cheese"

[KC]

As and extensive office user I was first confused by the ribbon like most people; yet after getting used to it I see now it's much more intuitive and faster then the old system.

[Borbus]

Apple is so much better isn't it?

A little bit better (they develop CUPS and some other stuff for Darwin) but mostly they are just as bad.

[primexx]

A little bit better (they develop CUPS and some other stuff for Darwin) but mostly they are just as bad.

Awesome you're actually treating equals alike.

[EduardValencia]

I like the ribbon,did you took some time to google the solutions?

Those questions show one thing,you have't investigated prior to posting here on neowin,how come you can find HELP?