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

[Charles Oppermann]

FYI, just because there are no "traditional" menus in Office 2007, doesn't mean you can't do things the way you are used to doing them.

Every keyboard shortcut and menu accelerator from previous Office versions have been kept.  So if you are used to pressing ALT+I and then the C key to insert a comment, that will continue to work.

Charles Oppermann | Program Manager | Speech Components | Microsoft Corporation
http://blogs.msdn.com/chuckop/

-----Original Message-----
From: gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:gui-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Steve Pattison
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2007 3:51 PM
To: GUI Talk; Access-L
Subject: [gui-talk] Article: Want the old Office 'Classic Menus' back in Office 2007?

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
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