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#21
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
Gordon
I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#22
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is,
so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#23
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers?
Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#24
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support.
-- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#25
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
Herb and all other responders:
Thanks for all the lively feedback. I'm almost as overwhelmed by it as I am/was by the new and improved Office 2007 interface. I say "am/was" because I've been sweating hard in recent days to experiment and get familiar with the new interface and I think I'm slowly getting used to it. Sint ut sunt aut non sint - accept them as they are or deny their existence. Denying their existence is a luxury that Bill Gates et al won't let us afford ... A few observations: - Customizing toolbars etc. has never worked well for me. Partly a personal thing, and partly because it tends to make interactions with company provided user support even more complicated than they already are. - Everything in Office 2007 is very visual now - almost exclusively. That may work well for most people but not for all. Like me for instance. I just liked the option in previous versions to use text-based pull-down menus without having to glance all over the screen to find some cute little darn icon until my eyes start to hurt. - Some new features I really like, e.g. the long overdue citation insertion and bibliography creation will come in very handy. - Pity they still they did not fix some of the chart issues (funky aspect ratio issues). Guess that will never be addressed. Thanks again! -- JMB "Herb Tyson [MVP]" wrote: When I agreed to write a book about Word 2007, I faced exactly the same problem you're facing. But, because Word 2007 was the object rather than the means, I had no choice in the matter. At the outset, I was using Word 2003 to write the book, but at some point, critical productivity mass was achieved, and I found that new Word 2007 features made me more productive, and so I wrote the last half of the book using Word 2007. I don't know if there are "classic" interface tools for Excel, but there are several for Word 2007: http://www.addintools.com/english/menuword/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/04/20/111 I believe that the second option is free. So, for Word, at least, you have at least three choices: 1. Bite the bullet and learn Word 2007, knowing that Word 14 will surely build on Word 2007/12 rather than on Word 2003/11; this is the best option if you need to keep up with future versions of Word. If it's hard to get used to the new interface now in Word 12, it will only be more difficult several years from now with Word 14. 2. Use a classic interface tool, relying on it when you're in a hurry, but otherwise dabbling and gradually learning the ribbon approach. This is a good option if Word 2007 has features that you need, but you don't need to learn Word 2007 in a hurry. There are other learning aids you can use, as well, such as the interactive guide that shows you where to find Word 2007 commands and features: http://office.microsoft.com/assistan...HA100744321033. 3. Revert to Word 2003. This is a good option if Word 2003 provides everything you need and if you won't need to work with documents that rely upon Word 2007-specific features that aren't preserved when using the Office 2007 Compatibility Pack. A 4th option--not incompatible with #1 and #2--is to set up Word 2007's Quick Access Toolbar so that it contains your most-used tools from Word 2003 (do the same for Excel 2007). This is the approach I use for my everyday work, and it has alleviated a lot of Word 2007's ergonomic inefficiencies. One approach to this is shown he http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com/2...more-familiar/ -- Herb Tyson MS MVP Author of the Word 2007 Bible Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com Web: http://www.herbtyson.com "JMB" wrote in message ... I'll make an honest attempt to give this question/feedback a positive twist. I have been using Word/Excel etc. for years now and consider myself somewhat of an expert user. Now I have a new computer with Vista and Office 2007. And I essentially find myself facing this predicament of going up an enormously steep learning curve, i.e. relearning how to wordprocess and spreadsheet almost from scratch all over again. The new and improved of Office 2007 apps may look much more "politically correct" than in previous versions, but so far my experience has been that it can hardly get any less user friendly and more convoluted than this. I'm giving it a very serious try here, but I'm also beginning to think about throwing in the towel. Anybody out there that can offer any useful advice as to how I can actually start using the Office 2007 applications without letting all my previous experience and know-how completely go to waste? -- JMB |
#26
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
OK - but how about the needs of companies (large and small) who use
customised styles/templates/toolbars/icons etc to standardise the presentations of letters, reports, etc? For instance, when such companies work with outsiders (say, when they outsource), all they had to do with 2003 was to provide their sub-contractors with their customised templates/toolbars/icons etc and save considerable time and energy on post writing-up formatting. Also, freelancers who work/ed for different companies using their clients' customised templates/toolbars/icons can/could be very efficient when 2003 customisations are/were well designed. It appears to me that they will have problems being as efficient with 2007. -- Paul Gauci "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#27
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
Paul
I agree: the current implementation makes it harder for all and I cannot see what the long-term advantages are to anyone that the Ribbons are locked down so tightly. What I would like to see is the ordinary user being able to create their own 'Home' Ribbon that can be tied in with a template. On this ribbon, the user can add whatever groups they want from any of the other standard ribbons and remove/change the contents of these groups. For example, my Home ribbon would remove the Clipboard group (a real waste of screen space), remove much of the Font and Paragraph group tools (but adding a few more useful tools) and thus making loads more space for styles. Terry "Paul Gauci" wrote in message ... OK - but how about the needs of companies (large and small) who use customised styles/templates/toolbars/icons etc to standardise the presentations of letters, reports, etc? For instance, when such companies work with outsiders (say, when they outsource), all they had to do with 2003 was to provide their sub-contractors with their customised templates/toolbars/icons etc and save considerable time and energy on post writing-up formatting. Also, freelancers who work/ed for different companies using their clients' customised templates/toolbars/icons can/could be very efficient when 2003 customisations are/were well designed. It appears to me that they will have problems being as efficient with 2007. -- Paul Gauci "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#28
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
While I agree that a customizable ribbon or tab would be helpful, it has
been pointed out that you can create a specialize QAT for a specific template. Don't think, however, that I am in any way defending the loss of customizability. I haven't yet "upgraded" to Office 2007, but I'm going to be one of the loudest whiners when I do, as I have highly customized my Word 2003 UI (with some customizations probably dating back to Word 2.0). -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Paul I agree: the current implementation makes it harder for all and I cannot see what the long-term advantages are to anyone that the Ribbons are locked down so tightly. What I would like to see is the ordinary user being able to create their own 'Home' Ribbon that can be tied in with a template. On this ribbon, the user can add whatever groups they want from any of the other standard ribbons and remove/change the contents of these groups. For example, my Home ribbon would remove the Clipboard group (a real waste of screen space), remove much of the Font and Paragraph group tools (but adding a few more useful tools) and thus making loads more space for styles. Terry "Paul Gauci" wrote in message ... OK - but how about the needs of companies (large and small) who use customised styles/templates/toolbars/icons etc to standardise the presentations of letters, reports, etc? For instance, when such companies work with outsiders (say, when they outsource), all they had to do with 2003 was to provide their sub-contractors with their customised templates/toolbars/icons etc and save considerable time and energy on post writing-up formatting. Also, freelancers who work/ed for different companies using their clients' customised templates/toolbars/icons can/could be very efficient when 2003 customisations are/were well designed. It appears to me that they will have problems being as efficient with 2007. -- Paul Gauci "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... |
#29
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
Just a couple more observations in the mix:
The "Ribbons are locked down" statement needs qualification. The built-in Ribbon groups aren't customizable, but it _is_ possible to remove any/all built-in groups and replace them with customized groups that might be either slight modifications of the built-ins or completely different. To do this, though, you need to get somewhat familiar with RibbonX, which is what Patrick Schmid tries to do at http://www.pschmid.net/office2007/ribbonx. Yes, this is harder than customizing Word 2003 and earlier, and thus not end-user-friendly. I suspect that's intentional, at the request of the aforementioned large companies. They can afford to have someone learn RibbonX, create customized templates for their needs, and have everyone in the company forced to use the same customizations (including IT support). Eventually someone will come up with an end-user tool that makes Ribbon changes easier. Patrick's RibbonCustomizer is close, but still not as easy as many would like. Probably it will have to wait until MS fixes some of the bugs and limitations in RibbonX itself. On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:23:50 -0600, "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: While I agree that a customizable ribbon or tab would be helpful, it has been pointed out that you can create a specialize QAT for a specific template. Don't think, however, that I am in any way defending the loss of customizability. I haven't yet "upgraded" to Office 2007, but I'm going to be one of the loudest whiners when I do, as I have highly customized my Word 2003 UI (with some customizations probably dating back to Word 2.0). -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Paul I agree: the current implementation makes it harder for all and I cannot see what the long-term advantages are to anyone that the Ribbons are locked down so tightly. What I would like to see is the ordinary user being able to create their own 'Home' Ribbon that can be tied in with a template. On this ribbon, the user can add whatever groups they want from any of the other standard ribbons and remove/change the contents of these groups. For example, my Home ribbon would remove the Clipboard group (a real waste of screen space), remove much of the Font and Paragraph group tools (but adding a few more useful tools) and thus making loads more space for styles. Terry "Paul Gauci" wrote in message ... OK - but how about the needs of companies (large and small) who use customised styles/templates/toolbars/icons etc to standardise the presentations of letters, reports, etc? For instance, when such companies work with outsiders (say, when they outsource), all they had to do with 2003 was to provide their sub-contractors with their customised templates/toolbars/icons etc and save considerable time and energy on post writing-up formatting. Also, freelancers who work/ed for different companies using their clients' customised templates/toolbars/icons can/could be very efficient when 2003 customisations are/were well designed. It appears to me that they will have problems being as efficient with 2007. -- Paul Gauci "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. |
#30
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Word 2007 Learning Curve
I suspect that if toolbar/menu customization had been possible only through
VBA in the past, we'd hear a lot less moaning about the need to learn RibbonX for Word 2007 customization. The real problem is that MS depended too much on SQM data that suggested users never customized the UI, overlooking the fact that (a) UI customization, if captured at all by CEIP (and they weren't very confident about that), would be captured only once, and that existing customizations (created before Word 2002/2003) would not be represented at all. This led the developers to believe that "users never customize the UI," which may still be true for the majority (especially the large portion whose UI is locked down by IT), but they overlooked a large and vocal minority who do customize. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Jay Freedman" wrote in message news Just a couple more observations in the mix: The "Ribbons are locked down" statement needs qualification. The built-in Ribbon groups aren't customizable, but it _is_ possible to remove any/all built-in groups and replace them with customized groups that might be either slight modifications of the built-ins or completely different. To do this, though, you need to get somewhat familiar with RibbonX, which is what Patrick Schmid tries to do at http://www.pschmid.net/office2007/ribbonx. Yes, this is harder than customizing Word 2003 and earlier, and thus not end-user-friendly. I suspect that's intentional, at the request of the aforementioned large companies. They can afford to have someone learn RibbonX, create customized templates for their needs, and have everyone in the company forced to use the same customizations (including IT support). Eventually someone will come up with an end-user tool that makes Ribbon changes easier. Patrick's RibbonCustomizer is close, but still not as easy as many would like. Probably it will have to wait until MS fixes some of the bugs and limitations in RibbonX itself. On Sun, 30 Dec 2007 11:23:50 -0600, "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: While I agree that a customizable ribbon or tab would be helpful, it has been pointed out that you can create a specialize QAT for a specific template. Don't think, however, that I am in any way defending the loss of customizability. I haven't yet "upgraded" to Office 2007, but I'm going to be one of the loudest whiners when I do, as I have highly customized my Word 2003 UI (with some customizations probably dating back to Word 2.0). -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Paul I agree: the current implementation makes it harder for all and I cannot see what the long-term advantages are to anyone that the Ribbons are locked down so tightly. What I would like to see is the ordinary user being able to create their own 'Home' Ribbon that can be tied in with a template. On this ribbon, the user can add whatever groups they want from any of the other standard ribbons and remove/change the contents of these groups. For example, my Home ribbon would remove the Clipboard group (a real waste of screen space), remove much of the Font and Paragraph group tools (but adding a few more useful tools) and thus making loads more space for styles. Terry "Paul Gauci" wrote in message ... OK - but how about the needs of companies (large and small) who use customised styles/templates/toolbars/icons etc to standardise the presentations of letters, reports, etc? For instance, when such companies work with outsiders (say, when they outsource), all they had to do with 2003 was to provide their sub-contractors with their customised templates/toolbars/icons etc and save considerable time and energy on post writing-up formatting. Also, freelancers who work/ed for different companies using their clients' customised templates/toolbars/icons can/could be very efficient when 2003 customisations are/were well designed. It appears to me that they will have problems being as efficient with 2007. -- Paul Gauci "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote: No, but that would be why customization would make it difficult to support. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... I see. So we dumb down Word to help the helpers? Terry "Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message ... Because the help desk person is not looking at the same screen the user is, so the user is referring to buttons and menu items the IT person may not even be aware exist, much less have in his UI. -- Suzanne S. Barnhill Microsoft MVP (Word) Words into Type Fairhope, Alabama USA "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... Gordon I'm not sure why this should be a support nightmare. If you use roaming profiles, surely, the customisations stay with the user. So if I log into any computer on the network, I get My Profile with My Desktop displayed and in Word I will see all my toolbars as I want to use them. Why is that a support nightmare? Terry "Gordon" wrote in message ... "Terry Farrell" wrote in message ... In previous versions, I always modified the Toolbars. Many of the tools I never used (such as cut, copy, past, bold, italics underline, etc.) I always dragged off and added useful tools that were hidden (such as ParaPageBreakBefore, Doc Properties, File New... and custom macros, etc.). I always like that there were always so many different ways to work in Word that allowed users to customize and work in a way that suited themselves and their principal tasks. To me, much of this choice seems to have been removed. I was privileged to be shown demos of the proposed Ribbon before it went beta and was enthusiastic as I could see that so many more commands could be made available for users, rather than having to dig deep to find the hidden nest of tools available. But I wasn't aware of how rigid the Ribbon was to be until beta testing started. I was deeply disappointed and I still am. And I will remain disappointed until the Ribbon is user customizable out-of-the-box. Terry I hear what you say, but from a support perspective in a commercial environment, a User customising ANYTHING on an individual basis turns into a support/helpdesk nightmare..... -- Regards, Jay Freedman Microsoft Word MVP FAQ: http://word.mvps.org Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit. |
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