how to get classic menu in Office 2007 applications - please help

Adam wrote:

"Bob Henson" wrote in message
. ..
Stan Brown wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 09:47:39 +0000, Bob Henson wrote:

Jeff Layman wrote:

On 20/02/2011 16:55, Adam wrote:
Anyone know how to get classic menu in Office 2007 applications?
I can't stand the ribbon.


http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%22...2&hl=e n&num=
10&lr=&ft=i&cr=&safe=images&tbs=

That's handy. I too hate the ribbon (more like plaited dreadlocks than a
simple ribbon) and this helps quite a bit. It's a shame it only adds
another toolbar, rather than over-writing the existing one, but that would
probably mean hacking Microsoft's code. However, still very useful.

I agree the ribbon takes some getting used to, and I still fumble
around finding some functions that I use less often. But my
suggestion is just to take the plunge and begin to become proficient
with it. You'll save time in the long run.

I've been using it for a while now, and cannot get on with it at all - it's
such a radical change from the standard type of program menu bar layout -
on any program, not just Office. I've given it a long trial, and it is far
less efficient to use than the menu bar type of layout - loads of
unnecessary key presses and mouse shuffling. Now I'm retired I don't need
to keep up with the latest versions for compatibility reasons - so this one
will "see me out", as they say. Had I known how dreadful this version is
2003 would have been my last one. So, having partly restored it to a
sensible layout with OfficeMenu, that will do me nicely.

If for any reason I'm forced to change, it will be to OpenOffice - which I
already use on my Linux machine, and which is much more useable and
efficient than Office 2007.

--
Reality is an illusion brought on by alcohol deficiency.

Agree with you 100%. I am heading towards Linux as well due to
all the BSOD from Windows 7, the hard-to-find-anything Ribbon which
takes up too much room, etc.

I haven't had any trouble with Windows 7 crashing at all, in fact I've
found it a big improvement over XP as far as stability is concerned - and
many things are actually easier - networking for example. However, it took
me a long time to work out how good it was, because the interface was such
hard work when Vista/Windows 7 came along. I've now managed to get the
Windows 7 menus back as they used to be (as with Office) and to almost get
rid of Libraries and a few other silly, unproductive ideas that slow things
down - so now I can appreciate its better points.
--
If all seems to be going well, you obviously have no idea what is really
happening.

Char Jackson wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:37:17 +0000, Bob Henson
wrote:

I've been using it for a while now, and cannot get on with it at all - it's
such a radical change from the standard type of program menu bar layout -
on any program, not just Office. I've given it a long trial, and it is far
less efficient to use than the menu bar type of layout - loads of
unnecessary key presses and mouse shuffling. Now I'm retired I don't need
to keep up with the latest versions for compatibility reasons - so this one
will "see me out", as they say. Had I known how dreadful this version is
2003 would have been my last one. So, having partly restored it to a
sensible layout with OfficeMenu, that will do me nicely.

If for any reason I'm forced to change, it will be to OpenOffice - which I
already use on my Linux machine, and which is much more useable and
efficient than Office 2007.

Or just go back to Office 2003. That's where I'm staying for the
moment. IMHO, that was the last 'good' version of Office. The two
later versions don't add anything that I need.

You're quite correct, there were no improvements whatever, but I'm not sure
if I can go back without a lot of hassle. I have a feeling that there were
changes in Outlook (which I use a lot) from 2003 to 2007 which will make it
impossible to reimport my backups if I go back to 2003 - something to do
with Unicode springs to mind? I have quite a bit of saved mail that I don't
want to lose. The same applies to the other programs in the suite, there
have been a few changes that mean the old suite may not correctly handle
files written with the newer versions.
--
"If it's a hobby to us and a job to you, why are you doing such a shoddy
job?" - Linus Torvalds to Microsoft

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:51:15 +0000, Bob Henson
wrote:

Char Jackson wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:37:17 +0000, Bob Henson
wrote:

I've been using it for a while now, and cannot get on with it at all - it's
such a radical change from the standard type of program menu bar layout -
on any program, not just Office. I've given it a long trial, and it is far
less efficient to use than the menu bar type of layout - loads of
unnecessary key presses and mouse shuffling. Now I'm retired I don't need
to keep up with the latest versions for compatibility reasons - so this one
will "see me out", as they say. Had I known how dreadful this version is
2003 would have been my last one. So, having partly restored it to a
sensible layout with OfficeMenu, that will do me nicely.

If for any reason I'm forced to change, it will be to OpenOffice - which I
already use on my Linux machine, and which is much more useable and
efficient than Office 2007.

Or just go back to Office 2003. That's where I'm staying for the
moment. IMHO, that was the last 'good' version of Office. The two
later versions don't add anything that I need.

You're quite correct, there were no improvements whatever, but I'm not sure
if I can go back without a lot of hassle. I have a feeling that there were
changes in Outlook (which I use a lot) from 2003 to 2007 which will make it
impossible to reimport my backups if I go back to 2003 - something to do
with Unicode springs to mind? I have quite a bit of saved mail that I don't
want to lose. The same applies to the other programs in the suite, there
have been a few changes that mean the old suite may not correctly handle
files written with the newer versions.

I can't put your fears of file incompatibility to rest, especially
regarding Outlook, but I haven't had any trouble with other files so
far, including Word, Excel, and Powerpoint. Everything opens fine and
is formatted correctly, and Word 2003, for example, includes the
capability to save files as Word 2007 .docx format, so my assumption
is that things are mostly good.

It would be a hassle, but you could use a virtual PC to test the
Outlook compatibility, or use your current version of Outlook to
export your email to a common format, then use the older version to
import it.

--

Char Jackson

http://www.addintools.com/english/download.htm

--
Peter
Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect


"Adam" wrote in message
...
Anyone know how to get classic menu in Office 2007 applications?
I can't stand the ribbon.

"Charles Tomaras" wrote in message
...

"relic" wrote in message
...

"Charles Tomaras" wrote in message
...

"Adam" wrote in message
...
BTW, I had googled before starting this thread.
Didn't find a satisfactory answer googling.

Maybe you should have tried www.bing.com

http://www.bing.com/search?q=how+to+...&fo rm=OSDSRC


If he tried Google, he got hundreds of hits (including all of Bing's). He
just didn't find a Free product.

You mean Google has been stealing Bing results again?


ROTFL

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:32:15 +0000, Bob Henson wrote:

I haven't had any trouble with Windows 7 crashing at all, in fact I've
found it a big improvement over XP as far as stability is concerned - and
many things are actually easier - networking for example.

I agree on both scores.

However, it took
me a long time to work out how good it was, because the interface was such
hard work when Vista/Windows 7 came along. I've now managed to get the
Windows 7 menus back as they used to be (as with Office) and to almost get
rid of Libraries and a few other silly, unproductive ideas that slow things
down - so now I can appreciate its better points.

Hmm. I had extremely elaborate customizations of the Start menu on
my XP machine, and was disconcerted at the prospect of redoing them.
But when I surrendered to the force, I found it was much, much easier
to just click the Start button and type a keyword. I have pinned
Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gravity to the taskbar, assigned shortcut
keys to maybe half a dozen other programs, and for everything else I
just use the search box. I think it's much more usable than the old
start menu.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:18:33 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

Or just go back to Office 2003. That's where I'm staying for the
moment. IMHO, that was the last 'good' version of Office. The two
later versions don't add anything that I need.

Nah -- Office 97 (or was it called Office 7?), before they destroyed
the usefulness of the help files.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:06:13 -0500, Stan Brown
wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:18:33 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

Or just go back to Office 2003. That's where I'm staying for the
moment. IMHO, that was the last 'good' version of Office. The two
later versions don't add anything that I need.

Nah -- Office 97 (or was it called Office 7?), before they destroyed
the usefulness of the help files.

I don't need no steenkin' help files. :-)

Seriously, when I have a question I turn to Google first, never to the
help files. It's just a habit I have.

--

Char Jackson

Stan Brown wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 19:32:15 +0000, Bob Henson wrote:

I haven't had any trouble with Windows 7 crashing at all, in fact I've
found it a big improvement over XP as far as stability is concerned - and
many things are actually easier - networking for example.

I agree on both scores.

However, it took
me a long time to work out how good it was, because the interface was such
hard work when Vista/Windows 7 came along. I've now managed to get the
Windows 7 menus back as they used to be (as with Office) and to almost get
rid of Libraries and a few other silly, unproductive ideas that slow things
down - so now I can appreciate its better points.

Hmm. I had extremely elaborate customizations of the Start menu on
my XP machine, and was disconcerted at the prospect of redoing them.
But when I surrendered to the force, I found it was much, much easier
to just click the Start button and type a keyword. I have pinned
Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gravity to the taskbar, assigned shortcut
keys to maybe half a dozen other programs, and for everything else I
just use the search box. I think it's much more usable than the old
start menu.

It depends how many programs you use and how good your memory is, Stan. I
really did make a concerted effort to get on with that way of doing things
when I first got Vista and then Windows 7, but (except with common programs
that were pinned anyway) I couldn't remember what to type into the box
and/or how it was spelt. In the time it took to think about it, I could
have found the file in a correctly sorted tree menu, run the program and
been using it for a couple of minutes.
--
Quantum mechanics: The dreams stuff is made of.

Stan Brown wrote:

On Mon, 21 Feb 2011 13:18:33 -0600, Char Jackson wrote:

Or just go back to Office 2003. That's where I'm staying for the
moment. IMHO, that was the last 'good' version of Office. The two
later versions don't add anything that I need.

Nah -- Office 97 (or was it called Office 7?), before they destroyed
the usefulness of the help files.

To be fair, when I changed from Office 97 to Office XP ( I think that was
the next one) I really couldn't see any advantages in the new one then. My
other half uses much of Office extensively at work, but doesn't use a tiny
fraction of its total capabilities. I suspect almost no-one does. Certainly
anyone like myself, even when I used it for business, wouldn't even scratch
the surface of what it will do. A professional database expert might use
Access, say, to somewhere near it's limit (if indeed they use Access?), but
he/she probably wouldn't know diddly squat about Excel or even the finer
points of Word.

I've often thought that a really cut down, basic Office-like program suite
would sell like ripe cherries - I wish I had the skill to test the theory
out. Even Open Office is miles too complicated for most people - but when
it's free it doesn't matter too much, once you've learnt where the bits you
actually need are hidden. Anyway, this old man has bought his last copy of
Office.
--
Diplomacy - the art of letting someone else have your own way.

"Adam" wrote:

Anyone know how to get classic menu in Office 2007 applications?
I can't stand the ribbon.

You and nearly everybody else that used older versions. The rule seems
to be that new users like it, experienced user who knew where
everything was hate it. Unfortunately, MS gave us no way to switch
back to the earlier paradigm.

I see that Jeff Layman posted a pointer to a $30 product that will do
this. If you want the classic layout badly enough, I guess it's worth
it....

--
Tim Slattery

http://members.cox.net/slatteryt

On Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:56:37 +0000, Bob Henson
wrote:


To be fair, when I changed from Office 97 to Office XP ( I think that was
the next one)


No, Microsoft Office 97 was followed by Office 2000, *then* by Office
XP.


I really couldn't see any advantages in the new one then. My
other half uses much of Office extensively at work, but doesn't use a tiny
fraction of its total capabilities. I suspect almost no-one does.


True. But, as with almost any new version of anything, the few new
features that are valuable to one of us aren't the same new features
that are valuable to the next person. We all work differently and have
different likes and dislikes.

On Tue, 22 Feb 2011 09:20:55 -0500, Tim Slattery wrote:

"Adam" wrote:

Anyone know how to get classic menu in Office 2007 applications?
I can't stand the ribbon.

You and nearly everybody else that used older versions. The rule seems
to be that new users like it, experienced user who knew where
everything was hate it. Unfortunately, MS gave us no way to switch
back to the earlier paradigm.

Those of us who are keyboard-shortcut buffs have the best of both
worlds. I can still do Alt-E-S-V for Paste Special: Values; Alt-F-O
for File: Open, and all the other shortcuts I learned with earlier
versions of Office.

--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...