The Ribbon Sucks
If you are working with Office 2007 you know the Ribbon. If you don’t you are a lucky bastard.
Although Office has many bugs and is a major case of feature bloat, but up to now I always stood up to defend it, because most of the stuff I use works ok, and that is probably more than 90% of the Office Users use. AND alternatives aren’t really there yet. Ok there is Open Office but the last time I looked at it, it was horrible, ugly, buggy and IMHO only usable for private use.
But now the ribbon enters the room. At least in the way it is implemented in Office it is the biggest usability road block short of a system crash. But first what is this ribbon thing anyway?
The ribbon is a GUI Component which replaces the menu bar and the toolbar found in so many applications. It looks like this:
(Click on the image for a full size version)
At first sight it looks just like a menu bar + a toolbar with different size icons and other elements in it. But this is a misconception.
- The menu bar is not really a menu bar but tabs, which one uses to switch between different toolbars.
- There is an additional thingy on the top which contains some actions like save, undo and redo called the Qick Access Toolbar:
- The is a big ugly bubble like icon which is actually a button, which is more or less the file menu:
If you are a developer there is also a document for you which describes, how you are supposed to use the ribbon component in the applications you create.
So what is wrong with all this?
Let´s start with the minor annoyances:
The more important commands in the Ribbon should get larger icons. Great. Just nobody asked me what is important for me. For example the different layouts you can view a word document with are NOT important for me. For me the whole concept of different layouts for viewing cut go away. I wouldn’t miss it. It actually would be an improvement, because it would stop word from opening documents ‘for full screen reading’.
Who had the weird idea that a two column menu (like the windows start button or the ribbon application button) is a good idea? It is probably the same guy that came up with the idea to add two buttons and a weird extra panel to the menu. Why there aren’t just three more menu items labeled ‘Recent Documents’, ‘Options’ and ‘Exit’? I have no idea.
But now it is getting serious, at least for me. For me toolbars and menus had two very distinct purposes: Toolbars where for quickly accessing stuff. Since I mostly use keyboard stuff for thing I need often. I don’t use toolbars to much. Menus are for looking up commands that I know are somewhere, but I don’t know the shortcut. In this case I look at the available menus, pick the one that sounds promising, and scan all the items in it. This approach completely fails with the ribbon!
Microsoft completely messed up the grouping of commands.
The design guide says explicitly:
Avoid arbitrary command placement. Suppose that you think you have a good tab and group design, but discover that several commands just don’t fit in. Chances are, your tab and group design isn’t as good as you think it is, and you need to continue to refine it. Don’t solve this problem by putting those commands where they don’t belong. If you do, users likely will have to inspect every tab to find them—then promptly forget where they are.
Yet every single office app has a ‘home’ tab which is just a glorified ‘other stuff’ which contains arbitrary stuff. But even within the proper tabs things are of: What has recording macros to do with ‘view’? Why is stuff named ‘… layout’ not in the ‘Page Layout’?
Even when the grouping of commands would have been done properly Microsoft did a great job at making searching the commands hard. With menus searching all items in the menus was really easy: Start with the first menu, go through it item by item. If an item is a submenu, continue with that submenu. When you finish a menu, go to the next menu. If you finish with a submenu, continue with the next item of the parent menu.
For the Ribbon the whole thing got way more difficult. First you scan the application menu. Don’t forget the two buttons in the application menu. Then iterate through the tabs scanning each toolbar within that tab, carefully checking the buttons for tiny triangles, which denote some combo box like control which hides even more commands. Ok scanning the cluttered toolbars, with text, icons in two sizes and all kinds of other controls is way slower than a nice list of commands/submenus but that isn’t too bad, isn’t it. Well it would be if we hadn’t missed 50% of the commands. Have a look at this partial screenshot.
Below the buttons and stuff is another grouping. It is completely useless since your eyes are coming from the tabs and get stuck between the buttons and controls before they notice, after a long search, that their search might have been easier if they had noticed the groups below first. What is more important is the tiny square with an arrow which is in some of the groups. It opens another dialog which sometimes looks like a menu and many actions are hidden in there.
So this is it, my rant about the Microsoft Ribbon Component. I actually don’t like rants. I like my blog posts to contain some useful stuff. So what are my recommendations?
If you plan to include a Ribbon in your next application think twice. It will look modern, but it will annoy users like me. You could make them happy with an option to replace the Ribbon with a more traditional UI. If you want to make users like me really happy make your menus searchable. In Java you can do that really easy with the substance look and feel it creates a search box for searching the menus all on its own … really nice.
I love it.Your opinion is just that,an opinion.
More people seem to like it,besides MS did something out of the box with ribbon,and it isn’t a disaster like they usually end up doing.
Personally, I hate the damned ribbon. I find it a hinderance rather than useful because it can be a real pain to find a command. However, some people (generally those who are not long-time users of Office) do seem to really like the thing.
I agree whole-heartedly that Microsoft should have included an option for showing the menus instead.
I spoke with a chap at Microsoft about this and he was really quite defensive. I guess he gets it a lot as he was very quickly able to produce a nice PowerPoint presentation explaining why there was a problem that needed the ribbon to fix it. Basically, he said there were too many functions for menus to show. Of course, this is still the case with the Ribbon and seems to be even worse.
I have read about the reasoning, that the ribbon would be useful for organizing a large amount of commands. As I described above: this is exactly what doesn’t work for me.
I am aware that many people do like the ribbon and of course that is fine. Actually I’m curious about what people do like about the ribbon. So if somebody could shed some light on that it would be apreciated
I completely agree. Ribbon is just plain frustrating to use. I needed to print a simple document and I just was trying to bring up the old print dialog so I could set a range of pages to print. This SIMPLE TASK TOOK ABOUT 10 MINUTES because of how unintuitive the new interface was. Microsoft rightly believes that if the user interface didn’t change then people don’t notice:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001208.html
The real problem is the interface should always move toward simplification not complexity, the UI designers just got the Ribbon design all wrong. Too complex and it really didn’t simplify the UI. EPIC FAIL…
Agree! Ribbon totally sux.
Hope in the next Office version it will be only as an option. 
I love the first response: “You’re opinion is…an opinion”.
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!
It’s HIS blog.
Why don’t you link your blog that adequately explains how the hell you could appreciate this complete cluster-fuck of a control?!?
The ribbon is utterly dreadful and completely defeats the productivity we’ve gained by effectively learning how to work with menus over the last 10 years.
The notion that the standard menus could not have been provided as an option is simply foolish. And Microsoft wonders why Vista is simply being rejected by corporations everywhere. Every new vistafied computer I buy promptly get’s erased, reformatted, and installed with XP.
I’m not interested in what MS thinks is “better”. It’s my software, I bought it and I expect to be able to use it without having the rug pulled out from under me.
I don’t find it hard to find commands using the Ribbon.
What I do find annoying is the extra time it takes to change Ribbon tabs to click my command. In 2k3, I had everything I needed on the toolbars, allowing 1-click access.
i totally agree. In fact, if the ribbon had come before toolbars and menus we would be talking about how easy menus are in comparison. At most toolbars are an imporved toolbar… but only if implemented correctly. If you are giong to have a ribbon make it optional and always include a menu. There are very very very few programs that should not have a menu. even simple programs often function better with a menu. for me this entire ribbon nonsense (And most of vista) is part of microsofts attempt to keep up the MAC. However, a MAC like OS only appeals to people who are predispositioned to like Macs. But they will never like a PC that wants to be a MAC as much as a MAC. So why try to compete and alienate those customers that prefer regular old windows.
There’s a Google mole running the MS GUI team. Their stuff has been getting worse and worse since 2004. I’ll stick to my 2003 Office thank you.
Unfortunately Autodesk followed like lemmings over a cliff. Someone at Autodesk ought to get a clue and backoff brown-nosing MS. At least Solidworks had the brains to abandon this POS interface after their customers went berserk.
The Ribbon Sucks!!!!
I like the ribbon. In my eyes, it is definitly a big improvment. It may take time to adapt for long time office users, but i truly believe that it is a big step forward when it comes to usability
Fuck the ribbon it sucks….if you like the ribbon you suck too.
trying to adapt to the ribbon for year and a half now it remains a huge time and money consuming feature for us hardcore office users not to talk about the frustration accompanied. the people who are saying the ribbon is good might be menu-phobic beginners or microsoft employees and contractors. the others are vastly furious about it and the user experience doesn’t improve by time cause there’s a lack of functionalities…. it’s like trespassing himalayas by a horse …
Just installed 2007 about 2 weeks ago. The result was an experience analogous to opening a Christmas (b-day) present (from grandma) to find nothing but socks, but in this case socks inside a box colorful box that had pictures of totally cool toys on it instead of socks. MS is starting to remind me more of my grandma everyday.
teh ribbon is yet another crappy useless change by MS which epitomises why america is going down the tubes fast – its cosmetic and offers no hard product value. useless useless useless.
Thank you for this site!
Personnaly, I really HATE the ribbons. I stopped the use of Microsoft Office Applications in the CLASSROOM since MS Office 2007. Since then, we still use Office 2003, because Office 2007 (and probably 2010, as well) is no more ‘teachable’. The only way to discover it’s silly dynamics of changing menus is TRIAL and ERROR. – Now I seriously recommend the use of LINUX (like UBUNTU) and OPEN OFFICE + other open source – alternatives. If you mention those programs, please only judge after profound empirical analysis (we tested it until today with more than THOUSAND users (!), and it is very well done. Now think about it in terms of COST ANALYSIS: you can pay Linux-professionals during the process of conversion, and still spend much less than with expensive MS software. Most users only need 5% of the functions, and all those functions are well-done in open source – software!
I don’t know what you guys are talking about. I love the fact that MS took clean, uniform, linear, minimalist toolbars, and replaced them with a big cartoonish crazy jumbled clusterfck of a gui. Makes perfect sense. And what’s more, Autodesk thinks it’s such a great idea, they’ve started to incorporate it too for 2010, in a collapsable three-tiered pile of multiple subcategory pull-downs that guarantee you’ll be hunting and digging around for the few dozen of the ten million commands you need to use their programs.
This ribbon is a virus of the mind.
The ribbon is a heart-ache… Microsoft annoyed the hell out of me because their operating systems have always been full of shitty things that made things more difficult than they needed to be for no good reason, but I forgave then because I really liked Excel and I quite liked Word. Now the ribbon has changed all that… once in at least every day I will spend ten minutes trying to do something in Word or Excel that used to be intuitive, and I get quite angry (which is not like me)…. all criticsms of the ribbon are valid, I have yet to hear what is good about it. I had already figured out that there is a mole from Google or Sun involvd. However, Windows 7 is starting to show signs of improvement on the OS front. One of the things I always hate about Linux whenever I install it (for a few weeks every now and again) is the lack of a clear and clean menu structure and stupid meaningless icons and I spend a week getting wireless working and then I spend a week trying to find a decent picture viewer and then a week trying to do something else and then I realise I don’t have time for this. I have downloaded Open Office (for Windows) it actually looks quite nice and it opens Office docs and its Excel even has asolver and a choice of macro programming languages.
The “new” ribbons in Windows 7 are a cluttered, hieroglyphic throwback to the menus used by the DOS version of Lotus 1-2-3. Remember when pull-down menus were hailed as an improvement? What happened to that perspective?
The good thing about ribbons is people are starting to look out for other than Microsoft products.
I found this post by searching for “the ribbon sucks” because of how frustrated I was. I knew I hated it, but didn’t know how to explain why. The arguments are excellent.
“I love the first response: “You’re opinion is…an opinion”.
NO SHIT, SHERLOCK!
It’s HIS blog.
Why don’t you link your blog that adequately explains how the hell you could appreciate this complete cluster-fuck of a control?!?”
Yes!
Microsoft couldn’t provide the standard menus because then MOST people would have chosen that as an option – and then the IDIOTS who designed ‘The Ribbon’ would have had their precious egos shattered, AND have to explain to Microsoft just why they came up with such a crap interface.
In other words, like Lefties everywhere, they give you only ONE option, thus FORCING it on you, and call that ‘progress’.
The ‘Ribbon’ is the antithesis of good interface design. Everything about it is wrong. Drop down menus work perfectly, they rely on spatial memory, which is how we all remember where things are. The ‘Ribbon’ is like playing ‘find the lady’, trying to guess under which tab the command that you want, is hiding.
The idiots at Microsoft who came up with this disaster also came up with loads of other ridiculous interface ‘ideas’, you can see this on Youtube when the Dickwad in Charge (I forget his name) actually showed the world all the stupid designs his ‘team’ (of idiots) had come up with, prior to forcing the pile of shite that is ‘The Ribbon’ onto us all…
In other words, those idiots couldn’t just leave the current system in place, drop down menus, because then they would have been out of a job! So what complete and utter cretin in Microsoft PAID them in the first place?
“I like the ribbon. In my eyes, it is definitly a big improvment. It may take time to adapt for long time office users, but i truly believe that it is a big step forward when it comes to usability” – says Dan who obviously works for Microsoft.
Or has never used a computer before 2010.
Who are these idiots defending this joke of an interface? “i truly believe that it is a big step forward when it comes to usability” – EPIC FAIL!!!
I’m not an IT expert, only a programs average user, since the days of Windows 3.1. I currently use several programs for my job duties, so I’m not in principle afraid of any new program and/or UI; the most difficult to master with personal satisfaction being MS Office 2007.
I work in academia, and being in a multicultural environment I have colleagues from all over the world. Some of them use Japanese or Chinese versions of Windows and Office. In the recent past (meaning WinXP/Office 2003), when one of them was off and we needed to look in their PC for some badly needed document and maybe modify it, with the help of the menus it was still possible, even if all the menus were in Japanese!
This because of the spatial memory. Now, with the ribbon, I don’t think I would be able to do it any more… because, even using my own language, in Office 2007 everything gets confused. As an example, to do a chart in Excel (simple average bars with Std-Dev Custom error bars and a Chart Title) I should wander through endless tabs clicking several more buttons than before.
On another side, to have all the commands “handy” I have a two-lines Command bar (of which I can only see one line for some irrational reason unless I click the usual pin-sized hidden button) usually full of Commands taken from Blob–>Word Options–>Customize–>”Commands not in the Ribbon” (moronic admission that “something” is missing in there!).
If I was submitting a project grant that was suggesting something akin to the disaster that came off with MSO2007, due to peer review it would have been hopelelssly axed (and maybe i was fired as a consequence). MS clearly does not have a peer review of their projects, nor does kick out incompetent people.
All I can say is, I used Visio effectively for years. I just spent five minutes, and I CANNOT FIND the line tool. Are you kidding me?
On top of that, the do NOT ALLOW users to revert to “classic” (god, do I hate that expression) menus.
Whether the ribbons are good or bad is indeed an opinion. But to unilaterally force fairly advanced users like me to relearn an industry standard suite of applications? That is treating the customer like crap. And that is no opinion. That’s just a fact.
Interesting post! I share your opinion that the Ribbons are a usability disaster. My biggest beef is that commands which used to be just one click away now take two clicks. Invariably, the next command I want is on a different ribbon tab than the active one.
Even after months of using 2007 I find I am still quicker and more productive in Office 2003.
Both good points. The problem with ‘the Ribbon’ is that users no longer have any choice. They have to use ‘the Ribbon’ because their boss has bought 10,000 copies of Office 2007 and won’t buy the menu bar fix for it. Their boss doesn’t know one end of a computer from the other, and probably has palpitations just thinking about installing the menu bar fix, and would rather watch his whole company collapse than admit he is wrong.
Watch the Youtube videos on ‘the Ribbon’ where the head of the ‘design’ team (cough, cough) explains why they came up with this pile of crap. These people are living in another world and couldn’t care less how many millions of hours of people’s time is wasted because of THEIR stupidity. The Ribbon sucks, and that is all there is to it.
But will Microsoft ever admit they are wrong? Will they bring out a new version of Office with the ‘classic’ (i.e. normal, functional, working) menus? But the design team behind it will be the same douchebags who came up with ‘The Ribbon’, so they will fight tooth and nail against normal menus, otherwise they would have to admit they were wrong. Which is exactly the sort of people who you DON’T want designing a user interface… since the only opinions that matter are those of the users, not the fools who work for Microsoft.
Don’t read if you’re offended by harsh language and absolute American truth!!!
Hey Microcock, Everyone whose not retarded hates the fucking ribbon. It’s called a fucking hierarchy.. fucking GET…IT? Tards. Die.
Consider the the following fucking arbitrary list of meaningless bullshit words found in shitty Powerpoint and try to imagine where each of these words would fall on an outline of an essay (remember that crazy ass shit from 4th grade English? a fucking outline?!?! WHOA!!!!) I digress…
“Home,” (what in the fuck does HOME mean?) “View,” “Review” (YES! “view” AND “RE-view” … AAAAAIDS! Did i mention that I hated your guts Mr. ribbon inventor) “Design,” “Layout,” “Format,” (CUNTS! these are ostensibly synonyms!!! I’d like to punch in your face with all of my might. Like a karate punch where I use my whole body and punch past my target).
I’ve used word pad for years until now since i loath Word so powerfully… alas, the ribbon monster got it in my windows 7 and now it’s a shittier Word without spell check.
[...] interface, but reviewers say it’s not as annoying as the Windows version. Let’s hope not. You might also want to read these other posts…Save $30 on Adobe Photoshop or Premiere [...]
The ribbon is great, provided you have unlimited free time to locate the functions you need in each unique-as-a-snowflake application, don’t mind the fact that MS just flushed your 10 years of experience working with menus, and never have to try to describe to someone how to perform a function e.g. no more ‘choose File, Print Setup and click the Margins button…’
As an IT Professional at a small plant within a large company, we are finally migrating to Office 2007 (but still for now running Windows XP). This was not an easy choice, but, one that will be required sooner than later at this point. We are in fact a “trial” group – given that only about 30 users exist. We broke the users up in the typical “user”, “power user” , “super user” categories, and made the swap – to super and power users first. This has been going on for 6 months. There are no complaints now, and I have not been called to a desk to assist in quite a while. I have to use both O2k3 and O2k7, and retain knowledge of both, as I support both. One big difference at our facility (to others in the same company) was that a “migration” docment was created using a small group covering 90% of what people used Excel/Word/Power Point for. We don’t use Outlook, and rarely use Access. In fact, we won’t roll out Access 2007 as several older apps need to be upgraded to get it to work – they are being migrated to SQL Server. So – be patient, you can learn the ribbon. 90% of users will adapt very, very quickly, provided you have prepared properly for the move. Most people complained loudly when they moved from Word Perfect DOS to Word Perfect for Windows, and then, later from WPW to Word 97. It’s healthy to vent our fustrations! And a few years from now, we will all be fluent with the ribbon and have forgotten all about it!
The ribbon, or the where’s waldo, interface is a time suck. It’s probably the first interface I’ve run across that isn’t getting any better. I’ve even wasted time customizing and it’s still like playing a game of concentration. I’m always surprised how many people write off complaints as mere opposition to change and leaving a comfort zone. Sometimes complaints are valid and based on solid reasons. The ribbon is ineffective for anyone but a newbie who isn’t aware of more than the most basic functions. Office is too feature heavy to start with and hiding access to features is really a bad idea. I guess the one bright spot is that OpenOffice is getting better every day and at this point a menu bar is a real selling point.
For those who haven’t found it yet, I find myself minimizing the ribbon completely so only the tabs are visible. Removing the cluttered and busy eyesore removes distracting random icons and doesn’t really slow things down much since it takes ten minutes every time I go to the ribbon anyway. The new ribbon workflow is stop your current train of thought and go spelunking around for the desired action then return to work. Turning off the ribbon while working makes the process two separate modes; one mode is productively working the other is wandering around searching with the ribbon exposed.
It sucks. Nearly 20 years with Access and this is the final straw. Spent hours just trying to figure out how to show the Print Preview “toolbar” on the ribbon without allowing anything else. Everyone says to go custom and XML… I JUST WANT A PRINT PREVEW TOOLBAR THAT USED TO BE THERE. Frustrated? More than with any other Access issue I’ve ever faced. And that’s just the tip of the iceburg here…
Get out while you still have some sanity…
I’m joining the “sucks” camp for three reasons:
1) It is simply true that clicks have increased. Putting “Send and Receive” on another tab is a perfect example of why.
2) User customization is discouraged.
3) If your objective is to write and deploy macro applications that are used repeatedly, not having a toolbar to float or dock where you want is just plain dumb.
I’m sorta wondering why the ribbon can’t be one giant uberbar that can be used alongside an array of user-created ones. That way, most people get what they want. On balance, people who really care about Office just don’t like the ribbon. That’s just how it is.
Microsoft: If you want to do something useful and keep all your people busy, rewrite the whole suite in managed code so .NET can be integrated without a colossal COM-interface performance penalty.
“Tie a mellow ribbon round the old oak tree” and then set fire to the tree, please. 2011 and I still curse MS for this unwanted kick in the nuts. If you want to see how good the system is, have an intuitive bash at changing the colour of grid lines in Xcel…
The “ribbon” was “invented” out of pure arrogance because it’s a “catchy” phrase/term and I guarantee you the “development” “team” when sitting around in their meetings – they were all puffed-up within saying to themselves “I’m gonna be famous” “this is a famous money-grubbing new invention”. The ribbon is nothing more than a FAT TOOLBAR invented out of arrogance – then in addition, to not preserve decades of familiarity, to not provide a built-in a classic interface choice, is arrogance on steroids.
This ribbon stuff is really crap, pure junk! it is like 10,000 stickers on your face. What is fuk is the thing you need? Besides, the traditional border is gone. The office app looks like naked pigs on screen. When you have multiple docs open, that’s where the real pain comes. Whoeer comes up with the ribbon crap must be an idiot ecutive who wants to destroy the office all together. Go figure.
Gosh I moved to a new bank that does not use the fucking RIBBON.
After they imposed the RIBBON, I stopped doing any sort of spreadsheet development, that shit is just to unbearable.
Going back to 2003 is such a relief : I need to program spreadsheet in my job, all the time. finally I can do it again.
Ribbon Interface should be renamed to Retard Interface because that’s what it is made for … users with retarded Computer skills/knowledge.
MS system was allways between fully pro (Linux/Unix) and easy/noob (Mac).
Now MS tries to competition with Apple and puts shitty fat icons in 10000 weird menus. At all noobs or users that use their PCs so rarely that everything has vanished what they did last time may find the Ribtard usefull BUT all people that have a solid knowlege and training using the PC (job/hobby) get limited in productivity!
If that is really going to be default on Win8 including folders etc. I’ll join the linux fraction…
MS would do much better if they would add a “design-modus” to Windows comparable to what is default on every MMORPG game interface.
Make 2 or 3 default setups and let companies/users build their on whole windows- and programm-layout. Soon there would be a user community that offers sweet and rated setup-ups for download … THAT would be a revolution and not that Ribbon and Aero crap!
Ribbon = MS way to hell because they won’t beat Apple in beeing easy to use!
I’m generally a fairly savvy computer use. I’m familiar with advanced features in Word and Excel, and I’ve even done some database development and web site design. I love information technology (who doesn’t these days?), and I make it a priority to keep current.
I say this, not to blow my own horn, but just to share the depth of my frustration. I hate that damn ribbon menu. I would happily upgrade to the latest overpriced version of Word, if not for that horrendous interface.
The stage is set for a lighter, cleaner, faster alternative to Word. Somebody please step up to the plate! I’ve tried OpenOffice, but encountered too many bugs. How is Corel these days?
I also hate it and at the office we are stil using Office 2003 as long as possible. If they don’t include an “old, but practical style menu & toolbar” option to revert their stupid decission I’m certainly considering Open Source or Google Apps as an alternative. I’m the system administrator and up to now I never had somebody asking me about the 2007 or higher version to increase their productivity.
Ribbon takes half of my screen, and I have not 50″ monitor for that. Also, for years we have learnt to use menu and toolbars, now it looks silly, may be good for a secretary (although mine hates it) but for IT guys it is a disaster!
I have used the ribbon/office sporadically for several years now and the ribbon still makes no sense to me. While I’m pretty good now at getting to things that I use every day, if I have to find a feature that I don’t use often it is a big guessing game. It just took me a few minutes to find the “About” screen – way more clicks and no sense to it (Click on the special “Office” button, then click on the special “Options” button, then click on the “Resources” button/tab, then click on the About button… vs Help|About in 2003). I’m used to the ribbon but I still much prefer toolbars & menus. Has anyone seen non-MS-sponsored proof that the ribbon is faster/better for users?
The ribbon is actually a disaster and does in fact SUCK. Microsoft should have included an option to show the classic menu, if desired. Morons…
To those that say the Ribbon is “retareded”. What does it say about the intelligence of you geniuses when you can’t figure out an application made for retarded people?
Change happens. Get over it. I remember when people were complaining about the menu system when it was coming out.
I’ve downloaded a special add-in for Office 2007/2010 to restore the old menu & toolbar system. Now, I’m not afraid of productivity going down when I use Office newer than 2003.
In other words, ribbon sucks….
Just got 2010 loaded on new laptop,
The ribbons are so pretty !!
pretty, pretty ribbonnsess! Giv thag headache, no
findy anything. Tag to supid to use ribbons!!
Now thag go search for menu app like Louiellen.
It is way faster to find an item in a neatly organized vertical list then in a horizontal mess of icons and words on randomly named tabs.
If the ribbon were that great then why are they afraid of adding a classic menu option? Everybody would be happy: Those who like to train their click finger and eye muscles could use the ribbon and those who like to have some work quickly done could use normal menu’s.
I hate this fuckin’ ribbon. It is eliminates my productivity for 3 years now. So all i can say to MS architect – you’re really stupid guys and fuck you all.