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h_james h_james is offline
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Default Anyway of getting toolbars back

The new interface (the so-called ribbon) appears designed to frustrate and
completely kill the productivity of experienced Word users. Is there ANY way
of getting the old toolbars back (not to mention shortcut key combinations)?
Or do I simply have to buy another copy of Office 2003?
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Ben G. Ben G. is offline
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Default Anyway of getting toolbars back

Time moves on. Word 2007 is so many things. Much more than any of us have
been able to implement, nor ever will. It's really a toolkit, or to use a
geek term framework, for knowledge workers -- I won't go into explanations
here.

If you want to use it as a word processor, then it's amazing. I struggled
with 2007 until I changed my thinking about it. The revelation for me was to
erase all the old versions of Word from my mind. I think nostalgically
about Word for DOS (bundled with the first MS Mouse -- steel ball), those
were in the CPM vs. Windows days. And I think nostalgically about Word for
Windows versions prior to 2007, too. The key for me was to think of Word
2007 and the ribbon as an entirely new thing. When I started asking myself,
"if I were the developer, where would I have put x, or y, or z", the new
paradigm made sense very quickly."

The new paradigm and the new functionality amaze me, yet I still think it's
more a beta than a version 1.0 product. Especially when it comes to file
interoperability, and there are a whole lot of bugs to resolve. What worked
for me, once I got comfortable with the new paradigm was getting the
Microsoft Book "Word 2007 Inside Out". It helped me through the bugs, such
as getting Building Blocks to work (deleting a file that holds the index to
the building blocks is the solution, and Word 2007 will rebuild the index).

I have nothing to do with Microsoft Corporation. In fact, I use to develop
a whole load of things using JAVA and use to spit on Microsoft for mucking up
a whole lot of things (sorry, Bill).

I think the .Net framework is an amazing paradigm for coding, and Word 2007
is equally amazing for knowledge workers, that is if people figure out that's
what Word 2007 is all about.


"h_james" wrote:

The new interface (the so-called ribbon) appears designed to frustrate and
completely kill the productivity of experienced Word users. Is there ANY way
of getting the old toolbars back (not to mention shortcut key combinations)?
Or do I simply have to buy another copy of Office 2003?

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CiceroBC CiceroBC is offline
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Default Anyway of getting toolbars back

As a Microsoft Certified Professional, and a former Microsoft product
instructor, since turned technical writer, who uses Word, Powerpoint, Excel,
Access, and Visio every day (I'll be using run-on sentences in this - I'm not
at work) I can say definitively, that Microsoft has made a step backward. I
have read research articles that new users find the new interface more
approachable and easier to use, and the follow up to say that "regular users"
of MS Office products actually enjoy it when they "get used to it." That is
nice for casual users, or even semi-regular users who need to write a report
frequently for work. However, in a profession where access to the lesser
known features of the program is critical to releasing the next safety
bulletin for a remote industrial site, I can't afford to spend fifteen
minutes on how to embed an OLE object. Money is lost while I deal with a fix
to something that was never broken.
Why did you do it Microsoft? My assumption is that there was market
research, focused on people that did not buy office products or upgrades
(didn't office 97 already do what most users actually needed?) The most
likely response was that it was "too complicated" or "there's so much that I
don't use." Hey, building a rocket is hard too, but you don't see me asking
for a big slingshot to go to outer space. Some people need the hard stuff to
get a job done.
I know, I know. All of the features are still in the product, but they've
been "enhanced." If you want to peddle your wares to the masses, dumbing
down an interface is a way of doing it, but don't expect loyalty from the
geeks that made Microsoft the king of software. The first company that has a
commercial office suite ready to enterprise on this blunder will get my cash
in a heartbeat, and my recommendation to the IT department budget. Until
then, hand me the flash drive with Open Office, I've got some real work to do.
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