If you're upgrading to Microsoft Office 2007 or 2010, or recently upgraded, then you're in the thick of relearning all of the Office products. It's a bit daunting at first. I remember when the first Office 2007 and 2010 public betas came out. I hated the new ribbon menu and all that entailed learning how to perform the same tasks I already knew using the old dropdown menu metaphor. I thought things were perfectly fine and Microsoft was making a huge mistake, and I didn't have any plans on changing my views about it... mostly because I was not happy about the significant drop in productivity when switching to Office 2007 ribbon menus.
Fast forward to about a year ago plus. It wasn't until I began using Office on my Mac (Office Mac 2008) more frequently that I really appreciated, and dare I say "miss" the Office 2007/2010 ribbon menus. Once you find the functions you commonly use, the ribbon menu is much quicker to perform everyday tasks, and faster finding those features you used to have to hunt down hidden inside one of the old Office menus.
Note: Here's a fantastic video about the history of the ribbon menu and how Microsoft UI designers came to develop this new user interface paradigm... http://videos.visitmix.com/MIX08/UX09. It's a bit long but worth it if you into this sort of thing.
Do I "love" the Office ribbon menus? No, can't say I'm sold to that degree but now that I've become accustom to them I find I prefer the ribbon menu to the old Office 2003 (and older) interface. Office Mac 2011 brings ribbon menus to the Mac, and with them, much more consistency between Office on these two OS platforms.
If you're knee deep trying in the middle of learning the new Office 2007/2010 ribbon menu interface, hang in there. It will start to become familiar. You may have a love-hate relationship with them for a while but they'll eventually grow on you.
I have just upgraded to Windows 7 and I was always been a user of Windows ever since I encountered a pc. The ribbon menu are great, its easy for everyone to comprehend. Thanks for the nice post.
Posted by: Brad Fallon | January 15, 2011 at 05:12 PM
thank you. i love to read this type of information posts. again thank you...
Posted by: kiralık devremülkler | March 22, 2011 at 04:04 PM
Nice information, thank you buddy.. inspiring!
Posted by: Digital Blog | April 27, 2011 at 03:35 AM
I agree to an extent, although I've gotten used to using office 2010, I find the ribbons are counter-intuitive in a few programs - mainly word/excel, you have to go searching for things as opposed to being where they should be. Microsoft should address this problem.
Posted by: jeff | May 17, 2011 at 10:11 AM