Microsoft Caves On Ribbon Complaints
In what is a bit of an unfortunate decision, Microsoft has announced it is modifying the way the Ribbon in Office 2007 performs, giving into complaints from users that the Ribbon was taking up too much screen space. This despite the fact that while the perception of the Ribbon is that it is larger, due to the large, graphic buttons, it is in fact 5-8 pixels smaller than the Office 2000/2003 menus! Yes, despite looking bigger, the Ribbon is actually smaller, but testers complained so much about their perceptions, and Microsoft failed to properly explain the difference, so now the user interface has to suffer.
Now, the articles seem to indicate that this will be mostly optional, that you can probably just use the Ribbon as intended, but I’m worried about Microsoft making too many concessions to less open-minded Office users. The Ribbon, like the Start Menu, is a major change in UI design, but one that will benefit everyone once they learn how to use it. People complained about the Start Menu when Windows 95 came out, and they eventually came around, and the same thing will happen with the Ribbon.
UPDATE: TDavid asked me to trackback him on this, so here goes. Check out his thoughts on this story.
“Despite looking bigger, the Ribbon is actually smaller…”
Not true and here’s visual proof:
http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=113
Also check out my rant here:
http://www.thegsblog.com/?p=97
Like others, if the Ribbon needed to be so fat, then it should be highly customizable and moveable — notably to the left side of the screen like virtually every graphics program does these days. The real casualty in the Ribbon is keyboard shortcuts and how they sometimes obscure the very feature you’re trying to access.
Comment by Zaine Ridling | October 13, 2006
If there is one thing that drives me CRAZY about Office 2007 it is the fact that, in addition to the great points that are proven in this article written by Zaine Ridling, it is that there is no way to drag the entire toolbars to appear VERTICALLY instead of HORIZONTALLY. There is absolutely NO flexibility with the Office 2007 ribbon, which makes a mockery of the quick click toobars we used to use in Microsoft Office 2003, especially Word and Excel. Most buttons in 2007 require more clicks and more time to work than they did with the simple, quick and efficient dropdown menus in Office 2003. Even worse, hiding that stupid ribbon and showing it requires even more clicks every time I want to do something as simple as bolding text as in “click on bold icon.” Instead it’s 3+ clicks such as “click on minimized ribbon and start with home menu and hope I got the right section, if not click on the other menus to ensure I am viewing the right ribbon, click on bold icon, click ribbon again to hide it.” It’s about time to face facts — Microsoft Office 2007 is the bane of every laptop user’s existence — especially if you have a widescreen model.
Comment by FreeLegalAdvice | May 14, 2007
There is not much in the ribbon for people who knew what they were doing in Excel, and the lack of ability to customise is the big problem. There is now so much clutter that it takes a long time to find what I want.
For example, I used the toolbars for the “hidden” functions that I used frequently, so only one click needed. A great example was the formula auditing toolbar, which I use about 100 times a day, or paste values, paste formulas. I removed all unnecessary buttons ($,%,bold,Italic etc.) because they were either obvious shortcut keys or a better menu like “style” gave me more flexibility for less space. Now the ribbon has included in the HOME menu not only the style dropdown, but also the damn $%, which is just duplication. The same is true for the formulas tab, which includes a large Insert Function button, and then separate buttons for all the grouings that were available in the Insert Function dialog!
Also going back to the auditing toolbar, to use it as frequently as I do I should have the FORMULAS tab open all the time, which makes formatting a 3-click business every time. The formulas tab is bloody useless given that it has the insert function button AND seperate icons for all the formulas accessable through the Insert Function bar (so 1/3 of the space is wasted).
The solution Excel 2007 gives me is to minimise the ribbon and have everything on the Quick access toolbar, but the groupings are not as intuitive as before, not helped by the fact that Paste Values and Paste Formulas have the same button – a green dot! (what happened to the useful paste values icon!).
Finally, tell me why, in terms of “Logical Groupings” you have to go to VIEW to run Macros, ADD-INs to use custom menus and buttons that you helpfully included in your models, and REVIEW (or HOME – Format) to protect your sheet.
One (Microsoft) man’s logic is another man’s pain in the arse.
Comment by Chris Summerfield | August 2, 2007
the Numbering botton and the Recently Used Number Formats
You can’t drag it out it out away to see what it does to your paragraph!
Comment by anth | November 6, 2007