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Maybe We Shouldn't Make So Much Out Of The Ribbon

Not long ago I was talking to an MS Marketing person and when they asked me their standard

 

“What do you think of the Ribbon?”  question. I misspoke and said:

 

“It’s fine.  It’s just another menu and it works just fine once you play with it a while.  It sortsa bugs me that the focus on the Ribbon over-shadows all the cool new stuff in Excel 2007.” 

 

Oops – wrong answer…  I could tell it wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

 

Unfortunately after working on a REAL project (for money) using Excel 2007 for the past few weeks, I would totally repeat the same answer (and I guess I am here aren’t I?) - in fact more forcefully.

 

I LIKE the Ribbon in Excel (Access is still an open issue with me), but I believe that the best way to promote the new Excel might be to play down the Ribbon issue and play up the new formatting, data and Sharepoint integration stories and other cool things in the new product. 

 

Focusing on the Ribbon is like the time I was standing on an elevated tee on a par 3 and my wife’s cousin piped up “Don’t even think about that huge valley between you and the green – take it right out of your mind.” 

 

Thanks Gerry……

Published Thursday, June 07, 2007 9:24 AM by dmoffat

Comments

# re: Maybe We Shouldn't Make So Much Out Of The Ribbon

Thursday, June 07, 2007 10:21 AM by XL-Dennis

Dick,

Let's face it: It's here to stay.

Kind regards,

Dennis

# re: Maybe We Shouldn't Make So Much Out Of The Ribbon

Friday, June 15, 2007 5:02 PM by Simon

Dick

I tried not to bite, really I did. but...

'What do I think of the ribbon'? Its a big step backwards for advanced users, probably helps the less experienced.

It makes the Office suite look and feel like a beginners toy rather than something that can be used to develop serious line of business apps.

I think the interface is important, and for me the ribbon hides all the features I need, so it is a big issue.

Also its part of the bigger issue of breaking changes v compatibility. I dont mind big changes if they bring real benefits but for me the ribbon is way worse than the 2003 UI.

As to Dennis' question where is it going?, I don't know. what am I going to do about it? avoid it as long as possible, then code my own interface probably.

cheers

Simon

# re: Maybe We Shouldn't Make So Much Out Of The Ribbon

Tuesday, June 19, 2007 10:33 AM by dmoffat

Gee Simon - thanx for biting - I was hoping you would nibble on this topic........

I agree completely with your comments - especially "It makes the Office suite look and feel like a beginners toy rather than something that can be used to develop serious line of business apps.".

I believe that it there has to come a straight-forward, builtin and practical way for developers to grab control of the Ribbon and remove it if they want or preferrably replace it's functionality with their own.  It would be good if we even could create our own menu-bars to replace the Ribbon as part of the developer functionality.  

This would separate the Ribbon (which as I said is just another menu to me and "may" have some value for new users - all of whom must be about ten years old or younger because I don't find a lot of people who might use Excel who don't already use Excel (??)) ) from the "application" experience if you want to do so.

Cheers

Dick

# re: Maybe We Shouldn't Make So Much Out Of The Ribbon

Monday, June 25, 2007 9:15 PM by Simon

Dick

you provided the missing link again.

the O2007 UI is incompatible with the one everyone is currently using, so existing users won't be rushing to migrate.

The only new people starting using Office are kids at school.

Hence the childs toy interface, to get the kids on side.

I think the ribbon is a big step towards web delivery of Office functionality, personally I prefer the performance of working locally, but SOA seems to be the future.

cheers

Simon

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