Word 2007 is "More intuitive??"

[PA]

I hope it just that this new interface is still strange to me, but I am
finding the migration from Office 2007 to be far more difficult than was any
previous change.
I have used Office since version 97 (in 1998) and have migrated to new
releases as the minds in Washington state decided it was time for me to
change. Those were all painless.
Any and all opinion are welcomed to help enlighten me.

And by the way, Ron deBruin, an Excel MVP has an excellent site at
http://www.rondebruin.nl/0307commands.html. It is related to Excel, but may
prove valuable for Word and PowerPoint as well.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

The experience seems to be that the new UI is more intuitive for brand-new
users and not too difficult for casual users to get used to. Longtime power
users, the ones who knew where every command was on every menu and where
every button was in every dialog or on every toolbar (and had their toolbars
and menus extensively customized), are the ones who are really suffering.

 

[Gordon]

The experience seems to be that the new UI is more intuitive for brand-new
users and not too difficult for casual users to get used to. Longtime
power users, the ones who knew where every command was on every menu and
where every button was in every dialog or on every toolbar (and had their
toolbars and menus extensively customized), are the ones who are really
suffering.

Interesting. As an aside, and as a "power" user of Excel (mainly - since
Office 95) - I never had any cause to do ANY customization of toolbars.....I
wonder why people are so obsessed with it?

 

[Terry Farrell]

I don't think anyone will argue that the transition is far more difficult
than previous versions. It does get better the more familiar you become but
I am convinced that it is NOT easier or more intuitive to use than previous
versions. However, this may be because I have been a Word user since Word 2
which is making me prejudiced against this major interface change.

The way I see this is that the old interface was like the steering wheel of
a car: it is intuitive and works well for everyone whether you are an old
granny out shopping or an F1 ace winning the Monaco Grand Prix. A joy stick
or a drive-by-wire touch pad would be a disaster for the majority of normal
drivers. I think of the ribbon as the latter.

Given a 'once and for all' choice between Office 2003 and Office 2007, I
have no doubts that I would choose the former because I am concerned that
the developers will not resolve the gaping holes they have made of the
latter's interface implementation.

Yes, I like the look and idea of the Ribbon, but I don't like the choice of
tools that have been added in each group. As far as I am concerned, until a
user is able to change the layout and tools on the ribbons and create a
custom ribbon straight out of the box without need for third party tools, it
is a failure. To me the QAT is just a last minute panic measure to overcome
the inflexibilities of the Ribbons.

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

But, since we represent less than 1% (I guess) of all users, we don't count!

Interesting. As an aside, and as a "power" user of Excel (mainly - since
Office 95) - I never had any cause to do ANY customization of toolbars.....I
wonder why people are so obsessed with it?

Quick examples:
In Word, I always use "Format > Paragraph... > Line and Page Breaks > Page
Break Before > OK" which is 5 clicks. (This is because I abhor manual Page
Break as they have too often caused me grief...) Therefore, I added this
command to the tool bar... Now, one click.
In addition, I often need to get to the “Advanced Layout†tab (Object
Format) to adjust object position on a page, or to get information. Normally,
this is between 4 and 6 clicks away (depending on what you did last time you
displayed the Object Format dialog). So I have a macro that opens it directly
and I have added a button on the drawing toolbar...

If you do many repetitive tasks or often use the same tools to do diverse
tasks, it is definitely helpful to be able to customize the toolbars... This
is why 2007 is a pain to those who used to have extensive customizations in
order to make their job easier. One QAT to customize isn’t the same as over
20 toolbars you can customize according to the type of tasks that needs to be
performed...

 

[PA]

I would never classify myself as a power user, but I do claim to be competent
at using Word, Excel, and Access - and know enough about PowerPoint to get by
with simple presentations.
I have always disliked those operations that took multiple mouse clicks to
activate. I have thus been an advocate of Toolbar modifications, since I
first learned how ten years ago. The inflexability in Office 2007 is very
vexing. Kind of like my local government dictating the type of vehicle I can
park in my driveway, which they attempted to do.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm constantly finding things to add to the toolbar in Word 2003, though
every time I do, it is with a twinge of sadness, realizing it will be much
more difficult in Word 2007. LIke Jean-Guy, I have a button for "Page break
before" (though I don't actually use that one often) but also buttons for
"Keep with next" and "Keep lines together" (and thanks, Robert Franz for the
attractive button icons). One big advantage of all of these is that they're
toggles and display the state of the current paragraph, so it's easy to see
whether a paragraph has the given formatting (the square bullet tells you
they have one or more of the above, but not which one).

Just the other day it occurred to me that there might be a button for File |
Send To | Mail Recipient (As Attachment). I figured I might have to create
my own button icon (or use the one for the existing E-mail button, which I
never use), but to my delight there was not only a readymade command but one
with a button icon! I slapped myself silly for not realizing this many moons
ago--so many wasted mouse clicks!

BTW, Jean-Guy, I understand you can have different QATs for different
templates--not the same as having toolbars you can turn on and off in any
template, but a start.

 

[Terry Farrell]

Additionally, there are hundreds and hundreds of Word tools that are not on
any toolbar or under any menu (I printed them out once and it was over 4
pages long and I still don't know what half of them do). Without
customisation, you cannot get at them at all - in fact, most users don't
even know they exist because they don't know where to look. So creating a
custom template with custom tools for a particular application for 'dodgy
users' can be a boon to productivity: once the user knows that there's a
magic tool to do a complex task, it will be used.

Terry Farrell

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Terry,

To an extent I agree, for support folks and corporate types who locked down everything anyway, for many users the Ribbon is 'more
predictable' and they probably don't see that anything has been lost. In too many companies the 'show menus after a short delay')
is what folks live with after each log in when they're in prior versions. That was pretty much taken away.

As to customizing the ribbon, it's true that there there isn't the drag and drop UI built in, but customizing the ribbon via the
RibbonX tools and 'language' to rearrange everything is probably not any higher degree of difficulty than it would be to write a
macro in VBA (in fact it's easier for me to follow the outline structure of the RibbonX <g>), but surprisingly very few folks seem
to have jumped into that. There is even at least one MS tool, although it's not a WYSIWYG one

What is 'fun' is to start Word in Safe Mode (hold ctrl key when starting for those reading who may not be familiar with it) and
seeing the 'regular' ribbon if you have customized positions <g>. Then you can really get confused.

Over time, I've noted that there is a definite pause now when I start a prior version and go looking for things as the 'muscle
memory' now 'fights' to want to go to the Word 2007 places as first choice when using the mouse <g>.

============I don't think anyone will argue that the transition is far more difficult
than previous versions. It does get better the more familiar you become but
I am convinced that it is NOT easier or more intuitive to use than previous
versions. However, this may be because I have been a Word user since Word 2
which is making me prejudiced against this major interface change.

The way I see this is that the old interface was like the steering wheel of
a car: it is intuitive and works well for everyone whether you are an old
granny out shopping or an F1 ace winning the Monaco Grand Prix. A joy stick
or a drive-by-wire touch pad would be a disaster for the majority of normal
drivers. I think of the ribbon as the latter.

Given a 'once and for all' choice between Office 2003 and Office 2007, I
have no doubts that I would choose the former because I am concerned that
the developers will not resolve the gaping holes they have made of the
latter's interface implementation.

Yes, I like the look and idea of the Ribbon, but I don't like the choice of
tools that have been added in each group. As far as I am concerned, until a
user is able to change the layout and tools on the ribbons and create a
custom ribbon straight out of the box without need for third party tools, it
is a failure. To me the QAT is just a last minute panic measure to overcome
the inflexibilities of the Ribbons. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Jean-Guy,

While the Quick Access Toolbar has only one position, it does have the ability to have multiple sections that can you can have come
and go as needed.

The standalone (always there) entries are stored (in Word's case) in a separate XML file, Word.QAT, but you can add QAT items to
specific templates or specific documents if those help with task related actions. You can attach a template (Alt, T, I) that has a
custom QAT section as well as pull in custom made (not customized built in) Toolbars from older versions into the Add-In tab.

Then there is http://toggletoolbar.com which demonstrates a way to use [Task] Panes in Word 2007 as a way to 'host' groups of
commands (i.e. a version of floating toolbars). MVP Greg Maxey was looking into doing an article (I think) on how to do that with
Word, but I don't know how far along he's gotten with that.

=================

Quick examples:
In Word, I always use "Format > Paragraph... > Line and Page Breaks > Page
Break Before > OK" which is 5 clicks. (This is because I abhor manual Page
Break as they have too often caused me grief...) Therefore, I added this
command to the tool bar... Now, one click.
In addition, I often need to get to the "Advanced Layout" tab (Object
Format) to adjust object position on a page, or to get information. Normally,
this is between 4 and 6 clicks away (depending on what you did last time you
displayed the Object Format dialog). So I have a macro that opens it directly
and I have added a button on the drawing toolbar...

If you do many repetitive tasks or often use the same tools to do diverse
tasks, it is definitely helpful to be able to customize the toolbars... This
is why 2007 is a pain to those who used to have extensive customizations in
order to make their job easier. One QAT to customize isn't the same as over
20 toolbars you can customize according to the type of tasks that needs to be
performed... >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[DeanH]

"buttons for "Keep with next" and "Keep lines together" (and thanks, Robert
Franz for the attractive button icons)."

Hi Ms Barnhill, in the previous posting you mentioned the above. Where can I
get these icons or are they a closely guarded secret? ;-)
I have searched Mr Franz's website (Scientific guide) but cannot find such
icons.

Many thanks in advance
DeanH

 

[Jean-Guy Marcil]

BTW, Jean-Guy, I understand you can have different QATs for different
templates--not the same as having toolbars you can turn on and off in any
template, but a start.

Thanks for the info, this is good to know.

I will keep this in mind whenever my company is ready to make the "big"
switch...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Bob either sent them to me privately or posted them in a private binaries
forum--I forget which. It's possible he could be persuaded to share them
more generally. I'll warn you, though: his have some purple (or at least
magenta) in them--rather gaudy; I changed the color to red. <g>

These are among the half-dozen or so custom buttons I moved to Word 2007 as
part of a custom toolbar. They're one click less accessible from the QAT but
still better than having to open a dialog.

 

[DeanH]

Thanks for that Ms Barnhill.
Lets hope Mr Franz reads this and is agreeable.
I have always had KWN and KLT on my toolbar and use them constantly. As you
say the toogle effect is very handy. Unfortunately I have them as Text
buttons and a nice little icon or two would be very handy, even only to save
toolbar space.
Best regards
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I copied him by email, and he gave his permission for me to share. I'll
figure out a way to do it and let you know where they can be found.

 

[DeanH]

Many thanks.
Would somewhere on your website be best?
Look forward, as always, to hearing from you.
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Yes, I'll post them somewhere at my WordFAQs site. The hard part is
remembering to do it! I'll put that on my To Do list for today so I won't
forget.

 

[DeanH]

That is the website I was alluding to with "your website" and not one of the
multitude of other sites you are connected to.
Greatly appreciated.
Thanks again
DeanH

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Okay, I've posted a template at
http://sbarnhill.mvps.org/WordFAQs/CustomToolbar.dot. Note that when you
click on this URL and get the usual Save or Open dialog, the file will be
named CustomToolbar.doc and will want to be saved as a Word document. If you
save the file as a document, I suspect it will still act like a template,
and I've confirmed that if you change the extension to .dot before saving,
it will look like and behave like a template. Since you want to open the
file for editing, anyway, perhaps saving as a .doc is the right thing to do.

If you like (and IE will let you), you can open it first and read it, then
save as desired.

Eventually I'll get around to putting up a Web page explaining all this and
providing a link to the template, but for now at least the custom buttons
are in the template.

 

[DeanH]

All done, the condense 0.1pt is an added bonus, many thanks.
All the best to you and yours.
DeanH