Access/Office 07

[frogsteaks]

Is there a way to get rid of that horrid 'ribbon' and go back to a
'normal' menu structure in '07? I'd like to continue to develop and
distribute databases (preferrably with the access run time) that use
custom 'normal' menus and none of the horrid ribbons that are such a
terrible waste of screen space. Thanks!

[Tom van Stiphout]

On Thu, 21 Feb 2008 09:50:12 -0800 (PST), fr********@yaho o.com wrote:

You can minimize the ribbon: right-click towards the top of the ribbon
and choose minimize.
Rick Brand recently posted that what you call "normal" menus (and I
call "old fashioned" menus) are still supported.

-Tom.

>Is there a way to get rid of that horrid 'ribbon' and go back to a
'normal' menu structure in '07? I'd like to continue to develop and
distribute databases (preferrably with the access run time) that use
custom 'normal' menus and none of the horrid ribbons that are such a
terrible waste of screen space. Thanks!

[helenwheelss]

On Feb 22, 2:50*am, frogste...@yaho o.com wrote:

Is there a way to get rid of that horrid 'ribbon' and go back to a
'normal' menu structure in '07? *I'd like to continue to develop and
distribute databases (preferrably with the access run time) that use
custom 'normal' menus and none of the horrid ribbons that are such a
terrible waste of screen space. *Thanks!

This article describes how to "switch off" the ribbon altogether if
you only want your custom menus to show:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/ac...CH100621861033

It's harder to create new custom menus in 2007 though as you can't do
it through the GUI any more. I think you can still do it through VBA
code but have not tried yet.

[Wayne]

On Feb 22, 1:38*pm, helenwhee...@ya hoo.com.au wrote:

On Feb 22, 2:50*am, frogste...@yaho o.com wrote:

It's harder to create new custom menus in 2007 though as you can't do
it through the GUI any more. I think you can still do it through VBA
code but have not tried yet.

IMHO this is a really sad failing of Access 2007. They have taken
away the excellent menu builder of previous versions and replaced it
with nothing. I think I've seen at least one third party ribbon
builder around but this should have been a standard part of Access 07.

[DFS]

Larry Linson wrote:

However, be aware that the Lead Product Manager for the Ribbon User
Experience in Office got a promotion out of the Ribbon, as did his
Manager, who's now a Vice-President. Anything that good for two
careers _must_ have some good points, don't you think?

Here's another good point: Office 2007 was responsible for 2/3 of the growth
in 2007 PC software sales

http://www.microsoft-watch.com/conte...fice_2007.html

Scary - in a good way.

[The Frog]

Access can make you pregnant now? Oh dear.....

[frogsteaks]

Wow y'all are amazing! Because you happen to not agree with what
other think of a change, all you can do is throw personal attacks and
not offer an answer to the question asked.

BTW the fact that someone got promoted for creating something, in and
of itself has ZERO to do with whether that change was any degree of
'good'. Bottom line is that a good number of folks think the ribbon
interface is merely a change for the sake of change to make things
look 'cool'. My users don't like it. I don't need all the 'menu
options' open and on display at all times in my databses. In fact in
the databases I write, NONE of the standard menu items are ever
available. Even in a plain vanilla use of Access (or any other Office
app) the supposed gain of having all of those menus pulled down all
the time is exceeded by the wasted space they take up. Heck if having
saving ONE click to open a menu is so important why doesnt MS have a
tree bar open on the left side of the screen with EVERY option in the
given application on display at all times?

Anyway if someone has a real solution to my initial question I would
really appreciate a response.

[CDMAPoster]

On Feb 26, 1:40*pm, "Larry Linson" <boun...@localh ost.notwrote:

What my clients/customers don't like is being forced to retrain their
employees and suffering through the familiarization curve to replace what
has become second nature to their staff over the past 14 - 15 years. *I
wouldn't venture to speculate on the motive for making such a drastic
change.

One of the PDC 05 presentations went into the rationale behind the
ribbon. It included a history of the interfaces used for Word. The
old paradigm was simply inadequate and I give Microsoft credit for
realizing that and for attempting to come up with a new paradigm. I
feel that the same holds true for moving to XML. There are some
problems caused by them that they could have solved better, but I
applaud their courage for going to XML and for coming up with the
ribbon. Though drastic, I agree with those choices. IMO, many
companies try too hard to stretch existing methods in situations where
a new paradigm is more appropriate.

James A. Fortune
CD********@Fort uneJames.com

[Tony Toews [MVP]]

CD********@fort unejames.com wrote:

>What my clients/customers don't like is being forced to retrain their
employees and suffering through the familiarization curve to replace what
has become second nature to their staff over the past 14 - 15 years. *I
wouldn't venture to speculate on the motive for making such a drastic
change.

One of the PDC 05 presentations went into the rationale behind the
ribbon. It included a history of the interfaces used for Word. The
old paradigm was simply inadequate

We MVPs saw the same, or a similar presentation.

Learning From the MVPs
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archiv...04/476846.aspx.

>and I give Microsoft credit for
realizing that and for attempting to come up with a new paradigm. I
feel that the same holds true for moving to XML. There are some
problems caused by them that they could have solved better,

I agree that the Ribbon is a better solution going forward. Yes, it's going to
require work learning the new commands, etc. However one Excel MVP stated that he
was no longer going to be the Excel expert in the office because now everyone can
find the functions they need to do their job. And that I agree with.

>but I
applaud their courage for going to XML

Well, I'm not so convinced about XML. <smile>

Tony
--
Tony Toews, Microsoft Access MVP
Please respond only in the newsgroups so that others can
read the entire thread of messages.
Microsoft Access Links, Hints, Tips & Accounting Systems at
http://www.granite.ab.ca/accsmstr.htm
Tony's Microsoft Access Blog - http://msmvps.com/blogs/access/

[Rick Brandt]

ARC wrote:

As an aside, in todays every growing wide-screen, 1280x1024 and way up
resolutions, it truly is amazing we still hear talk of "wasted
space". I think if 2048 mode's were around, and in use by most, we'd
still hear talk of wasted space by some folks (*almost all* of
present company excluded). He sounds very much like my boss back in
the mid 90's, when were were dealing with 15" monitors, and 800x600
(or even 640x400).

The idea that new screens are always bigger than old ones is already the
"old way" of thinking. Going forward people are going to want (and need)
apps that can run on notebooks, PDAs, and even phones. Wasting valuable
real estate on the menu system is 180 degrees in the wrong direction. In
the future all menus will be popup menus.

--
Rick Brandt, Microsoft Access MVP
Email (as appropriate) to...
RBrandt at Hunter dot com