I Hate the Ribbon

[BobH]

I guess I've finally become too old a dog to learn new tricks. The ribbon format for commands in MS Office 2016 is driving me nuts and costing me productivity (to say nothing of dangerously increasing my blood pressure, which is not a good thing for one with 9 stents in his heart).

Is there an add-on product that is trustworthy that will allow me to use the classic menu presentation instead of the ribbon?

[TonyE]

One I used in the past was UbitMenu that adds a new ribbon containing the classic menu in Excel, Word and PowerPoint

http://www.ubit.ch/software/ubitmenu-languages/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[HansV]

I recommend giving it some more time - although the ribbon is far from perfect, it is here to stay, and all help you'll get on forums and other websites will be geared towards the ribbon...
But if you really want to:
Classic Menu for Office (Word/Excel/PowerPoint; free for private use)
UbitMenu (Word/Excel/PowerPoint; free for private use; there is also a paid add-in for Outlook)
Addintools Classic Menu for Office (all Office applications; paid)

[BobH]

Thanks, Tony!

I purchased, downloaded and installed it. Looks like just what I need!

Thank you, very much. Nice to have advice from a user

[BobH]

I recommend giving it some more time - although the ribbon is far from perfect, it is here to stay, and all help you'll get on forums and other websites will be geared towards the ribbon...
But if you really want to:
Classic Menu for Office (Word/Excel/PowerPoint; free for private use)
UbitMenu (Word/Excel/PowerPoint; free for private use; there is also a paid add-in for Outlook)
Addintools Classic Menu for Office (all Office applications; paid)

Thank you, Hans!

At my age (mid 70s), I find changing old, deeply ingrained habits and trying to replace them with new ones more difficult than when I was younger. I began using MS products under DOS before there was an MS Office and before Excel even. I used them daily until I retired at the end of 2000. I used them after that but not as often. When the ribbon came to me with Office 2016, I found myself spending more time trying to figure out where things were and becoming frustrated because the Help delivery is so spotty than doing anything productive. If I used the ribbon daily or even for long periods of time, I might heed your advice and give it more time; but I'm already 5 years past my 'use-by' date and don't want to waste what little time I have left dancing to MS's tune.

Having been an IT guy for 35 years, I understand quite well what changing a UI does to users and their productivity. Apparently MS either doesn't understand that or doesn't give a damn about its users. I can only imagine how many work hours have been wasted by MSO users who had many years experience with the old UI and were faced with the ribbon without any choice. To me, that's a helluva bad way to treat customers.

[StuartR]

I absolutely hated the ribbon at first, but a year or two on and I am completely used to it.

[Rudi]

Although Bob has his answer, for those who are still phasing into the ribbons, here are some interactive menu to ribbon guides that will help you to familiarize with the placements of buttons between the older 2003 interface and the newer 2010 ribbon interface using some nice animated comparisons..

[BobH]

Do you ribbon users find it is more efficient or easier to use than the old UI? (after you've learned it a bit, of course)

[Rudi]

I must admit that I do.

I am a visual learner and the ribbon (when compared to the older drop down menu lists) is a LOT more visual with its larger buttons and clear command groups. I liked it from the beginning and it did not take me long at all to identify and get used to the three tiered groups of commands; starting with the tabs, and then the button groups and then the individual commands. For me it was a road map, the tabs being the town, the button group being the street and the command being the house. If I wanted to adjust the margins in the doc/sheet, I would go to the town called Page Layout, navigate to the street called Page Setup and find the house called Margins (PS: I only thought of this specific analogy right now...).

BTW: The only thing I actually dislike of the ribbon is the complexity it presents with VBA. One has to dig into XML in order to control the ribbon with code...and this (for me) was not nice, knowing though that I speak from a very negligent standpoint. It probably has advantages with compatibility, web technologies and cross pollination.

[HansV]

The Office applications initially sported a small number of logically organized menus, each with a limited number of items. Finding a command was intuitive. Over the years, command after command was added, which lead to submenus and submenus of submenus, task panes, tabbed dialog boxes etc. Related commands were spread over multiple menus. Since the change was gradual, people got used to it, but by 2003, the menus and toolbars had become a confused mess.
So I can understand why Microsoft wanted to simplify the interface. The ribbon is the result of their efforts. Since commands are organized differently, it takes getting used to, just like the old menu/toolbar structure. But since the change was abrupt instead of gradual, users resented (and still resent) it. And although the ribbon has been improved a lot since the first release in Office 2007, it still has many shortcomings. Some commands are placed illogically, there are still task submenus and task panes, and as Rudi mentioned, the ribbon is much less easy to customize than the menu/toolbar structure. But on the whole it is quite usable.

[stuck]

I too hated the Ribbon when I first encountered it. It was the abrupt / dramatic change that threw me. Given that it wasn't going away I gritted my teeth and dived in. Now it doesn't bother me and on the rare occasions I try to use my ancient Office 97 applications at home they feel old and clunky and it takes an effort to navigate their menus.

Ken

[BobH]

Thanks for the information.

I guess if I used MSO as much and as often as I did before retiring, I wouldn't find the ribbon so off-putting. As it is, I have a new learning experience every time I start one of the products. I still think that MS should have left the old UI in place for those who needed it, realizing, of course, that acceptance of the ribbon would have been seriously impacted.