7 thoughts on “More Ribbon Replacement”

  1. Now everyone in doing it. In a few months, we’ll have these utilities coming out of our ears.

    The more I think about it, the more I agree with Walkenbach and DK. On the surface, these kinds of tools seem like a good idea. But in the long term, it’s a diservice. Those users have to learn the new UI at some point; so these utilities just prolong the pain. And I would even suggest that such tools actually hide some of the cool new features of Excel/Word/Powerpoint.

  2. Mike

    I agree totally, it has been a pain curve with me (I also have no business driver, just fun), but I now actually enjoy the UI a lot and customising, IMO is better than the old one. (Certainly in that it either works, or doesn’t…no ugly errors).
    I am now up to making dynamic menus at runtime using XML (RibbonX) and VBA.

    Maybe in a week or two I’ll share it here at DDoE. I have a talk to do at MS UK on it tomorrow (Shaking!)

    Nick Hodge

  3. Dick,
    Schmid’s utilty is very differnt form the other two utilities you mentioned in the previous post.
    It just provides a easier way to customise the Ribbon.

    Like wise Orlando’s utility is a tutorial for learning the Ribbon UI
    The “Cell” menu is customised to display the old menu system which when clicked display the corresponding element on the new Ribbon UI

    As I mentioned earlier lot of people are going to cash in on the unfreiendly Ribbomb..:-)

    Sam

  4. Nick – looking forward to seeing your progress with the Ribbon tomorrow at MS UK!

    I am still not completely familiar with the ribbon (not using it on a regular basis yet), but I am still excited at the prospect of learning a new UI and getting “under the hood”.

    I did think I might be the only one, but after reading some of the comments here I can only hope that the thoughts of DK, Walkenbach (and Mike & Nick) will be infectious and by the time Office 14 comes around everyone will be completely comfortable with the Ribbon UI.

    Is it going to be a case of needing to learn XML to keep pace or will the next batch of tools provide quick and easy ways to customise the UI?

  5. Simon

    We’ll talk more tomorrow I’m sure, but I found whenever I was reaching for Excel, I was telling myself…no….use 2007 and eventually you get better with it. Walkenbach gets paid to find out, so never trust his opinion ;-)

    See you tomorrow, traffic permitting

  6. “Is it going to be a case of needing to learn XML to keep pace or will the next batch of tools provide quick and easy ways to customise the UI?”

    Even with helper tools, you’ll need some basic knowledge of how XML is constructed, but you by no means have to be an expert. In fact, you’ll find that you’ll start recognizing the constructs and rules quite easily, especially if you’ve worked with HTML before.

    Wrox’s “Excel 2007 VBA Programmer’s Reference” has an excellent starter chapter on XML, which introduces you to the aspects of XML you’ll need to do just about anything XML related in Excel. You’ll be surprised at how fast you’ll pick it up.

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