[gui-talk] Article: Want the old Office ‘Classic Menus’ back in Office 2007?

[Steve Pattison]

This article is taken from 
www.itwire.com.au.  The product referred to in 
the article is available from 
www.addintools.com/english/menuoffice/default.htm. 
I don't know how well this will work with screen 
readers so use it at your own risk!  -Steve.

Want the old Office ‘Classic Menus’ back in Office 2007?
By Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Thursday, 12 April 2007

Wish you could restore the classic menus you’re 
used to from earlier versions of
Office with Office 2007? Microsoft didn’t give us 
this functionality, but a third
party software manufacturer has!

I just received a press release for a program 
called ‘Classic Menu for Office 2007
v.2.08’ from
Addintools, a software company based in Hai Nan, China.

Reading through the release, most of which is 
reprinted in this article, the software
says it will bring back the classic menus that 
Office 2007 lacks. So, I downloaded
it and tried it out for myself
 and
 it does what it says on the tin!
I now have a new ‘tab’ in the ribbon called 
‘Menu’. It sits on the left of ‘Home’
and is the first tab in the ribbon. When you 
click on this tab, you see the old Office
menu structure and icons staring you in the face.

Apparently, the software costs US $29.95 if you 
want to be a ‘licensed customer’
and get updates and technical support for two 
years, but the download is free, and
the software doesn’t appear to have any time 
outs, nor are any mentioned. I didn’t
buy the software so I’ve no idea if it will 
simply stop working in 30 days or something
like that, although I’m sure they’d prefer that 
if you decided to use it, they’ll
be hoping that you support them by buying it.

Anyway, here’s what the release says: “The 
Microsoft Office team has done a wonderful
job designing the new Office Fluent interface 
that has replaced the system of layered
menus, toolbars, and task panes with the 
so-called Ribbon. For all its great looks,
there are still many users who find the new 
interface difficult to get used to it,
wishing it could look the same as in earlier versions of Microsoft Office”.

The release continues that: “Following the 
requests from many users, Addintools has
introduced Classic Menu for Office 2007 v.2.08, 
an innovative application that will
bring back the classic look to new Microsoft 
Office, allowing users to work in their
usual manner without changing their habits. It 
lets users retrieve and show the main
menu bar, standard toolbar, and formatting 
toolbar that are hidden or moved away
from the direct view. The program works with 
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All new
Office 2007 features remain accessible in the classic menu and toolbars”.

Next they say that: “Classic Menu for Office 2007 
also lets users add the menus and
toolbars to Quick Access Toolbar, so that it 
becomes possible to minimize the Ribbon
and finish all operations without having to open 
it again. The program has been optimized
for complete compatibility with Microsoft Office 
2007 and supports all major languages,
including English, French, German, Italian, 
Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic,
Korean, and Chinese”.

They conclude by saying that: “The new Office 
look doesn't sit well with you? Download
Classic Menu from Addintools!”

So, while I’m not normally in the habit of 
re-printing press releases, this is a
very intriguing piece of software that fills the 
need some people have of restoring
the classic menus to Microsoft’s latest Office 2007.

For some people, this will be fantastic news. For 
others, it’s yet another reason
to try Open Office, Google Apps, ThinkFree 
Office, Zoho Office or some other Office
clone or compatible software.

Either way, if this software really becomes 
popular with users, it’ll certainly send
a message to Microsoft, who may be forced to 
release something like this themselves.
As for me, I’ve quickly gotten used to the Office 
2007 ribbon, so it’s kinda weird
to see the old menus in action. Still, I’m going 
to leave it there for a while and
see what it’s like using it, and if I come across 
any Office 2007 users who aren’t
happy with the ribbon or just wish they could 
have the old menus back, I’ll certainly
be telling them about this software.


Regards Steve
Email:  srp at internode.on.net
Skype:  steve1963
MSN Messenger:  internetuser383 at hotmail.com