Thread: Office XP's System

Anyone who has used Office XP will know this is not the first time Microsoft has tried to second-guess users by hiding menu options that were rarely used. Office XP's system didn't work well and often caused more confusion than it solved. There are no such problems with the Ribbon. The company conducted a survey, called the Microsoft Customer Experience Feedback Program, into how people actually use Office. An option to take part in the survey was included in the installation process for Office 2003 and more information can be found at. Microsoft ana lysed the feedback and the Ribbon was born.

And it's been a slightly controversial birth; not everyone approves of the new interface, as people have had to relearn where their commonly used commands live. Adding to the frustration, while Office 2003 had a toolbar that could very easily be customised, its successor is more fixed. This has led to a range of unofficial add-ons that return Office 2007 to its old look - we'll examine a few of these later on.



It is not just the icons in the tool bars that have gone, but also the menus. Instead, these have been replaced with tabs along the top of the Ribbon, making it easier to browse through different options; menus had a habit of disappearing if the mouse is moved in the wrong place.

Given the automation, what you can't do is move icons around in the Ribbon. This may come as something of a disappointment. A common customisation for Word 2003 and earlier was to create a new toolbar that had only essential icons in it. It was possible to condense the three rows of icons into one by ignoring icons when keyboard shortcuts were used instead. And that leads to another potential problem with the Ribbon: it is roughly as big as three lines ofthe old toolbar, so it can be intrusive on smaller screens. But there are ways around both of these problems, as we will demonstrate.