[Terry Farrell[_2_]]

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

"Gordon" wrote in message
...
"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...

But the user research team employed at huge expense by Microsoft said
that normal users never change their toolbars and such. Obviously they
were not monitoring real users and took the results at face value.

I have to say as an Advanced Excel user and a not-so advanced Word user
/I/ never bothered with customizing the tool bar in previous versions -
just as I don't bother customizing IE or Firefox.....