Access / Office 2007 - Menus

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  • prakashwadhwani@gmail.com

    Access / Office 2007 - Menus

    Office 2007 & thus Access has had it's menus replaced with the Ribbon
    Bar. It's very disconcerting. In Word, Excel, Access, I feel totally
    lost. Also all the shortcut Menu pulldowns don't work anymore ...

    eg

    Alt F-S to save a file
    Alt F-U for Page Setup in Word/Excel

    etc. etc.


    What I'd like to know is, how have you'll managed with the new Office
    2007 series product without menus ... (i.e. those that have migrated).
    I remember reading somewhere that a Menu Add-On is available by a 3rd
    party product which provides menus for Office 2007 just like Office
    2003 & it's previous versions. Is that a stable product ? Should I be
    using the 3rd party menu add-on or force myself to get acquainted with
    the new Ribbon Bar System ? And then what about the shortcut keys ?
    How do I get that functionality back ? I hate doing the mouse-
    keyboard dance !

    Best Rgds,
    Prakash.
  • Wayne

    #2
    Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

    On May 19, 4:38 pm, prakashwadhw... @gmail.com wrote:
    Office 2007 & thus Access has had it's menus replaced with the Ribbon
    Bar. It's very disconcerting. In Word, Excel, Access, I feel totally
    lost. Also all the shortcut Menu pulldowns don't work anymore ...
    >
    eg
    >
    Alt F-S  to save a file
    Alt F-U for Page Setup in Word/Excel
    >
    etc. etc.
    >
    What I'd like to know is, how have you'll managed with the new Office
    2007 series product without menus ... (i.e. those that have migrated).
    I remember reading somewhere that a Menu Add-On is available by a 3rd
    party product which provides menus for Office 2007 just like Office
    2003 & it's previous versions. Is that a stable product ?  Should I be
    using the 3rd party menu add-on or force myself to get acquainted with
    the new Ribbon Bar System ?  And then what about the shortcut keys ?
    How do I get that functionality back ?  I hate doing the mouse-
    keyboard dance !
    >
    Best Rgds,
    Prakash.
    AddInTools is available as a trial from here:
    Classic Menu for Office 2007 Shows Old Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Microsoft Office 2007. It brings back the Office 2007 classic view, and makes 2007 look like 2003. The users don't need any training after upgrading to Office 2007.


    Personally I think you are just better off learning the new interface.
    It doesn't take that long. IMHO the Ribbon is the least of Access
    2007's problems.

    I find the sluggishness of A2007 compared to A2003 to be the biggest
    annoyance, followed closely by the fact that there's no option to not
    have the Navigation Pane "always on top" in design view. This means
    if you are designing forms that are almost full screen width, you are
    constantly minimizing and maximizing the navigation pane or moving the
    position of the form, or both. They couldn't have made it more
    annoying if they had tried.

    A simple option to either have the Navigation Pane "always on top" or
    not always on top would have gotten rid of this annoyance. Perhaps
    we'll see it in a service pack, but I'm not holding my breath. I've
    never seen anyone else post that they find this annoying. Perhaps I'm
    the only one. :-)

    Comment

    • Tom van Stiphout

      #3
      Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

      On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
      <cqdigital@volc anomail.comwrot e:

      Try switching to a higher screen resolution, so the form isn't almost
      full size anymore.
      Or adopt a design like A2007 Northwind, where most forms run
      maximized.

      -Tom.

      <Clip>
      >
      >I find the sluggishness of A2007 compared to A2003 to be the biggest
      >annoyance, followed closely by the fact that there's no option to not
      >have the Navigation Pane "always on top" in design view. This means
      >if you are designing forms that are almost full screen width, you are
      >constantly minimizing and maximizing the navigation pane or moving the
      >position of the form, or both. They couldn't have made it more
      >annoying if they had tried.
      >
      >A simple option to either have the Navigation Pane "always on top" or
      >not always on top would have gotten rid of this annoyance. Perhaps
      >we'll see it in a service pack, but I'm not holding my breath. I've
      >never seen anyone else post that they find this annoying. Perhaps I'm
      >the only one. :-)

      Comment

      • ARC

        #4
        Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

        When I migrated to Acc2007 I went to a new pc with vista and a dual-core, so
        I don't notice sluggishness. Also I moved up to a widescreen display, so the
        nav bar has never bothered me, as development mode is plenty wide.

        And Prakash, in your Access 2003 vs. 2007 post, I posted with 2 links for
        learning the ribbon, which I found to be quite helpful. If you're going with
        the more modern version of access, I'm with Wayne, you definitely want to
        put the time in to learn the ribbons. It's not hard, and if you're stuck,
        just post here. Remember to turn on the option to "show add-in user
        interface errors", under the access options, advanced section. Otherwise
        you'll go nuts trying to find out why your custom ribbon is not displaying
        when there's an error.

        Andy
        "Wayne" <cqdigital@volc anomail.comwrot e in message
        news:d9310a6f-9a2b-4303-b6ed-bd5c99cd10a1@h1 g2000prh.google groups.com...
        On May 19, 4:38 pm, prakashwadhw... @gmail.com wrote:
        Office 2007 & thus Access has had it's menus replaced with the Ribbon
        Bar. It's very disconcerting. In Word, Excel, Access, I feel totally
        lost. Also all the shortcut Menu pulldowns don't work anymore ...
        >
        eg
        >
        Alt F-S to save a file
        Alt F-U for Page Setup in Word/Excel
        >
        etc. etc.
        >
        What I'd like to know is, how have you'll managed with the new Office
        2007 series product without menus ... (i.e. those that have migrated).
        I remember reading somewhere that a Menu Add-On is available by a 3rd
        party product which provides menus for Office 2007 just like Office
        2003 & it's previous versions. Is that a stable product ? Should I be
        using the 3rd party menu add-on or force myself to get acquainted with
        the new Ribbon Bar System ? And then what about the shortcut keys ?
        How do I get that functionality back ? I hate doing the mouse-
        keyboard dance !
        >
        Best Rgds,
        Prakash.
        AddInTools is available as a trial from here:
        Classic Menu for Office 2007 Shows Old Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Microsoft Office 2007. It brings back the Office 2007 classic view, and makes 2007 look like 2003. The users don't need any training after upgrading to Office 2007.


        Personally I think you are just better off learning the new interface.
        It doesn't take that long. IMHO the Ribbon is the least of Access
        2007's problems.

        I find the sluggishness of A2007 compared to A2003 to be the biggest
        annoyance, followed closely by the fact that there's no option to not
        have the Navigation Pane "always on top" in design view. This means
        if you are designing forms that are almost full screen width, you are
        constantly minimizing and maximizing the navigation pane or moving the
        position of the form, or both. They couldn't have made it more
        annoying if they had tried.

        A simple option to either have the Navigation Pane "always on top" or
        not always on top would have gotten rid of this annoyance. Perhaps
        we'll see it in a service pack, but I'm not holding my breath. I've
        never seen anyone else post that they find this annoying. Perhaps I'm
        the only one. :-)

        Comment

        • Wayne

          #5
          Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

          On May 20, 12:05 am, Tom van Stiphout <no.spam.tom7.. .@cox.netwrote:
          On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
          >
          <cqdigi...@volc anomail.comwrot e:
          >
          Try switching to a higher screen resolution, so the form isn't almost
          full size anymore.
          Or adopt a design like A2007 Northwind, where most forms run
          maximized.
          >
          -Tom.
          >
          I'm using a 19" 1280x1024 now, but I guess a widescreen is the answer.

          Comment

          • Wayne

            #6
            Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

            On May 20, 1:34 am, "ARC" <PCES...@PCESof t.invalidwrote:
            When I migrated to Acc2007 I went to a new pc with vista and a dual-core, so
            I don't notice sluggishness. Also I moved up to a widescreen display, so the
            nav bar has never bothered me, as development mode is plenty wide.
            >
            And Prakash, in your Access 2003 vs. 2007 post, I posted with 2 links for
            learning the ribbon, which I found to be quite helpful. If you're going with
            the more modern version of access, I'm with Wayne, you definitely want to
            put the time in to learn the ribbons. It's not hard, and if you're stuck,
            just post here. Remember to turn on the option to "show add-in user
            interface errors", under the access options, advanced section. Otherwise
            you'll go nuts trying to find out why your custom ribbon is not displaying
            when there's an error.

            I'm using a dual core with 2 gigs of ram, but I still find A2007 to be
            slow compared to A2003. There is plenty of comment on the web that
            Office 2007 is generally slower, especially Excel and this has been my
            experience. I'm expecting my new 2.5gig dual core laptop with 4 gigs
            of ram any day now. It will be interesting to see how Office 2007
            performs on it. And yes, a widescreen sounds like a good option.

            Comment

            • Larry Linson

              #7
              Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus


              "Tom van Stiphout" <no.spam.tom774 4@cox.netwrote in message
              news:552334hfjg dhav1gmr9e0itd4 nm922uqf2@4ax.c om...
              On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
              <cqdigital@volc anomail.comwrot e:
              >
              Try switching to a higher screen resolution, so the form isn't almost
              full size anymore.
              Or adopt a design like A2007 Northwind, where most forms run
              maximized.
              How soon they forget in Redmond! The "Windows Way" is to let the user have
              control over his/her own desktop. Databases where someone decides they know
              better than I do how my desktop should look irritates me significantly, even
              if they are from Redmond, covering their
              not-nearly-as-wonderful-for-Access-as-for-Word new user interface. It's
              true that Word's UI was a mess, cluttered, and needed rework; it's not true
              that the entire UI redesign should have been left up to someone who
              obviously had spent far-too-little time working with Excel and Access.

              Just about the quickest way to get me to (1) break in and revise an Access
              application so it doesn't drive me to distraction, or (2) reject it and find
              another application to serve the same purpose is to take over my desktop,
              run forms maximized or resize them to the author's "ideal size" at every
              possible opportunity.

              Larry Linson
              Microsoft Office Access MVP


              Comment

              • Tom van Stiphout

                #8
                Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

                On Mon, 19 May 2008 13:40:14 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
                <cqdigital@volc anomail.comwrot e:

                That's surprising that you develop applications with forms at almost
                1280*1024: do all of your users have the displays and video cards to
                support that?

                -Tom.

                >On May 20, 12:05 am, Tom van Stiphout <no.spam.tom7.. .@cox.netwrote:
                >On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
                >>
                ><cqdigi...@vol canomail.comwro te:
                >>
                >Try switching to a higher screen resolution, so the form isn't almost
                >full size anymore.
                >Or adopt a design like A2007 Northwind, where most forms run
                >maximized.
                >>
                >-Tom.
                >>
                >
                >I'm using a 19" 1280x1024 now, but I guess a widescreen is the answer.

                Comment

                • Tom van Stiphout

                  #9
                  Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

                  On Mon, 19 May 2008 21:50:54 GMT, "Larry Linson"
                  <bouncer@localh ost.notwrote:

                  I'm not a fan of maximized either, but you probably would agree that
                  with the new tabbed interface it's not as much a problem anymore as it
                  used to be.

                  -Tom.

                  >
                  >"Tom van Stiphout" <no.spam.tom774 4@cox.netwrote in message
                  >news:552334hfj gdhav1gmr9e0itd 4nm922uqf2@4ax. com...
                  >On Mon, 19 May 2008 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), Wayne
                  ><cqdigital@vol canomail.comwro te:
                  >>
                  >Try switching to a higher screen resolution, so the form isn't almost
                  >full size anymore.
                  >Or adopt a design like A2007 Northwind, where most forms run
                  >maximized.
                  >
                  >How soon they forget in Redmond! The "Windows Way" is to let the user have
                  >control over his/her own desktop. Databases where someone decides they know
                  >better than I do how my desktop should look irritates me significantly, even
                  >if they are from Redmond, covering their
                  >not-nearly-as-wonderful-for-Access-as-for-Word new user interface. It's
                  >true that Word's UI was a mess, cluttered, and needed rework; it's not true
                  >that the entire UI redesign should have been left up to someone who
                  >obviously had spent far-too-little time working with Excel and Access.
                  >
                  >Just about the quickest way to get me to (1) break in and revise an Access
                  >application so it doesn't drive me to distraction, or (2) reject it and find
                  >another application to serve the same purpose is to take over my desktop,
                  >run forms maximized or resize them to the author's "ideal size" at every
                  >possible opportunity.
                  >
                  Larry Linson
                  Microsoft Office Access MVP
                  >

                  Comment

                  • Wayne

                    #10
                    Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

                    On May 20, 2:06 pm, Tom van Stiphout <no.spam.tom7.. .@cox.netwrote:
                    That's surprising that you develop applications with forms at almost
                    1280*1024: do all of your users have the displays and video cards to
                    support that?
                    >
                    -Tom.
                    >
                    Tom, I'm surprised that you find that surprising! With the way that
                    LCD display prices continue to fall 19 inch 1280 x 1024 screens aren't
                    what I see as being upmarket any more. All my users have at least 17
                    inch displays with 1024 x 768 resolution which is what I usually
                    develop for.

                    Others ask specifically if I can develop for 1280 x 1024. I've been
                    looking at some screens online today and a reasonable quality Samsung
                    22 inch 1680 x 1050 widescreen can be had here in AU for about 300
                    bucks. This would solve my problem. I still think we should have the
                    option of not having the Nav Panel always on top in design view.

                    Comment

                    • Larry Linson

                      #11
                      Re: Access / Office 2007 - Menus

                      "Tom van Stiphout" <wrote
                      I'm not a fan of maximized either, but you probably
                      would agree that with the new tabbed interface it's
                      not as much a problem anymore as it used to be.
                      The theory of UI relativity? <GRIN>

                      I often want to be able to look at part of another window along with the
                      current one, even if the original developer didn't think that was
                      necessary... so perhaps "not as much a problem", but IMNSHO "still a
                      problem".

                      It irritates me when developers (and power users, for that matter) who know
                      what they are doing are prevented, or it is made more difficult to do it,
                      because the designers, at the time they made the UI decision, were only
                      considering casual or novice users -- and their "solution" made it hard for
                      anyone to get around their "managed" whatever (code/UI/???) no matter how
                      knowledgeable the user/developer happens to be.

                      Larry Linson
                      Microsoft Office Access MVP


                      Comment

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