Ribbon-like interfaces (ala Office 2007)

[steve.ledger]

Go ahead BAN ME I DARE YOU!

OK Done. You have a 7 day cooling off period.

[Big Frank]

Ah, so that's how you get banned.

[The Alien]

I agree somewhat with Covoxer's reply on the first page: as far as I had understood, Office 2007 was supposed to make it easier for you to access virtually everything without having to go into menu/submenu or dialogbox/subdialogbox.
It does make a lot of functions accessible, and the ribbon is pretty intuitive. But I still find myself opening the dialog boxes (by clicking on the small arrows on the ribbon bar) in order to access a subfunction that is not present on the ribbon itself :\

[Soquili]

I find that after years of using the standard toolbar and submenus that the ribbon bar actually makes finding things much harder.

However, if I actually used Office 2007 more than once or twice a year it may improve my retention of where things are on the ribbon bar.

I usually open Office 2003 because I know where the things I need are located.

[glenngosack]

Long time user of most versions of office and I find the ribbon bar somewhat confusing. Not to mention that under the 'old' menu choices, you didn't need to move the mouse more than an inch or two between menus and dropdowns - but the ribbon may require you to move across the entire (wide)screen for an option. (if you can find it). When I first saw it, I thought it was 'nice', but the first time I couldn't find something I knew where it was in the old - it became frustrating. I have been using it for quite some time here at work and home, and I've gotten better, but if I had my way, the old system would be back. Just my 2 cents worth...

[iamtheblues]

Why is there no UI option (ribbon/traditional)?
Saludos,
Bob.

[Soquili]

Bob, everyone would opt for the traditional menus.

[Giovanni]

I understand your arguments on ribbon interface; it's quite different from what we are accustomed, and sometimes finding a button is hard; but is all matter of practice.

About this, I see that traditional menus are still used in 99% of applications, so people cannot get the hang of the ribbon if so many apps don't have it.

After all maybe what I like most is the visual refresh to the same legacy features, and big icons that are easier to click.

[ss-kalm]

..... and big icons that are easier to click.

And as said earlier take up a lot more space on the screen. With new screens being 16:9 instead of the old 4:3, most screens are actually shorter in pixels than the old ones were. So taking up more space with the toolbar, doesn't make a great deal of sense. Writing letters/documents is normally done on a portrait orientated sheet. In some respects, it would make more sense for "Word's" toolbar to be down the side .......

[Giovanni]

I perfectly agree with you SS-Kalm.
I keep the ribbon hidden per default and activate it with a click when I need it; using a 16:9 laptop screen real estate is very important to me.
After all, the click I do to activate the ribbon is the same I would do to open a menu.