How do I view Office 2007 with a 2003, or classic interface?

[Veronica]

I installed office 2007 professional on my computer prior to purchasing it
for my other 250 users. I cannot imagine this transition. The
organizational burden upgrading to 2007 is unthinkable. The interface change
will have a undesirable impact on productivity on an organization-wide level.
I cannot recommend the purchase of more licenses, or implementation of this
version without a classic interface option, in order to allow my users the
ability to maintain their productivity. Is there a classic interface option?
If, not, it is a deal breaker for my organization.

 

[Dawn Crosier, Word MVP]

No, there is not a classic interface option. However, there is an website
that will help you transition to the new Ribbon Format. See
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx for Word
transitions
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx for Excel
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx for
PowerPoint
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/access/HA101666061033.aspx for Access -
look for the link called "Access Ribbon Mapping workbook" which will help
you download an Excel Workbook which will map the locations of Access tools.

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
I installed office 2007 professional on my computer prior to purchasing it
for my other 250 users. I cannot imagine this transition. The
organizational burden upgrading to 2007 is unthinkable. The interface
change
will have a undesirable impact on productivity on an organization-wide
level.
I cannot recommend the purchase of more licenses, or implementation of this
version without a classic interface option, in order to allow my users the
ability to maintain their productivity. Is there a classic interface
option?
If, not, it is a deal breaker for my organization.

 

[Veronica]

Hi Dawn.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, and doing so quickly. I
appreciate your direct answer to my question, even though it is not teh
answer I wanted. I do thank you for the links. They are not helpful, but
that is not your fault. I am so disappointed that Microsoft introduced this
version without a fallback position for the technophobes. I had just
convinced that last of my Word Perfect users to convert to Office, and now I
am going to regret it. There will be a riot against IT if I implement Office
2007, of that I am sure. People do not like having to constantly re-learn
how to use old tools. People want to reach into their toolbox and grab a
familiar tool, and know how to use it. If there are new bells and whistles,
well some will really like it, but the majority will not ever use the new
features. This change is like moving all the keys on the keyboard around,
and then expecting people to be able to type. Sure, they can re-learn, but
why should they have to? What is in it for them? People want to be
productive, and relearning an interface is not productive; it is a waste of
time. If I were to implement this, I would have to create and elaborate
training scheme, hold a lot of hands, and expect my workload to triple and
everyone else's productivity to plummet for anywhere from a month to three
years. That is incredibly resource intensive for me, especially when
resources are scarce. Even though it is Microsoft who has made this
regrettable change, I will be the one feeling the pain. So, not interested
in 2007. We will stick with 2003 and hope Open Office, or something else
matures to the point that we can implement it. I am thinking we will begin
exploring a migration away from Microsoft, as it appears that we cannot count
on them to consider the reasonable business and operations requirements of
ordinary customers. Further, it is my understanding that Microsoft wants to
change their business model from license sales, to subcriptions. This
product release, with all its assumptions, illustrates how risky that will be
for the average business or government agency.

Remember what Pepsi did when Coca Cola changed their formula? They took the
day off. I bet McIntosh is celebrating with this one. At least Coca Cola
had the humility and good sense to bring back their classic product.

 

[eacantdraft]

Hi Dawn.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, and doing so quickly. I
appreciate your direct answer to my question, even though it is not teh
answer I wanted. I do thank you for the links. They are not helpful, but
that is not your fault. I am so disappointed that Microsoft introduced this
version without a fallback position for the technophobes. I had just
convinced that last of my Word Perfect users to convert to Office, and now I
am going to regret it. There will be a riot against IT if I implement Office
2007, of that I am sure. People do not like having to constantly re-learn
how to use old tools. People want to reach into their toolbox and grab a
familiar tool, and know how to use it. If there are new bells and whistles,
well some will really like it, but the majority will not ever use the new
features. This change is like moving all the keys on the keyboard around,
and then expecting people to be able to type. Sure, they can re-learn, but
why should they have to? What is in it for them? People want to be
productive, and relearning an interface is not productive; it is a waste of
time. If I were to implement this, I would have to create and elaborate
training scheme, hold a lot of hands, and expect my workload to triple and
everyone else's productivity to plummet for anywhere from a month to three
years. That is incredibly resource intensive for me, especially when
resources are scarce. Even though it is Microsoft who has made this
regrettable change, I will be the one feeling the pain. So, not interested
in 2007. We will stick with 2003 and hope Open Office, or something else
matures to the point that we can implement it. I am thinking we will begin
exploring a migration away from Microsoft, as it appears that we cannot count
on them to consider the reasonable business and operations requirements of
ordinary customers. Further, it is my understanding that Microsoft wants to
change their business model from license sales, to subcriptions. This
product release, with all its assumptions, illustrates how risky that will be
for the average business or government agency.

Remember what Pepsi did when Coca Cola changed their formula? They took the
day off. I bet McIntosh is celebrating with this one. At least Coca Cola
had the humility and good sense to bring back their classic product.

:





- Show quoted text -

The "classic" menus are gone for good. With the sales of Office 2007
being better than what even the most optimist Microsoft executive
thought (as oppose to the sluggish sales of Vista), many people seem
to like the new features. I personally like the Excel size change.

I'm sure when Excel first came out that many DOS veterans hated the
pull down menus. I had a manager once who used the old Lotus 123
commands in Excel because he was not comfortable with the pull down
menus.

Times change, those that adapt get the farther ahead.

 

[Dawn Crosier, Word MVP]

I feel your pain. I work for a law firm who is just now getting so that
they call me with WP question rather than Word questions. (The courts still
have not converted.)

Anyway, the learning curve is not that bad for users who are not as
proficient in Word. Those of us who are Power Users have more of a struggle
because we have to re-think where the tools are located. You might find this
article useful:
http://www.law.com/jsp/legaltechnology/pubArticleLT.jsp?id=1173101898471

Good Luck! And Hang in There!

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message was posted to a newsgroup, Please post replies and questions
to the group so that others can learn as well.
Hi Dawn.

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post, and doing so quickly. I
appreciate your direct answer to my question, even though it is not teh
answer I wanted. I do thank you for the links. They are not helpful, but
that is not your fault. I am so disappointed that Microsoft introduced this
version without a fallback position for the technophobes. I had just
convinced that last of my Word Perfect users to convert to Office, and now I
am going to regret it. There will be a riot against IT if I implement
Office
2007, of that I am sure. People do not like having to constantly re-learn
how to use old tools. People want to reach into their toolbox and grab a
familiar tool, and know how to use it. If there are new bells and whistles,
well some will really like it, but the majority will not ever use the new
features. This change is like moving all the keys on the keyboard around,
and then expecting people to be able to type. Sure, they can re-learn, but
why should they have to? What is in it for them? People want to be
productive, and relearning an interface is not productive; it is a waste of
time. If I were to implement this, I would have to create and elaborate
training scheme, hold a lot of hands, and expect my workload to triple and
everyone else's productivity to plummet for anywhere from a month to three
years. That is incredibly resource intensive for me, especially when
resources are scarce. Even though it is Microsoft who has made this
regrettable change, I will be the one feeling the pain. So, not interested
in 2007. We will stick with 2003 and hope Open Office, or something else
matures to the point that we can implement it. I am thinking we will begin
exploring a migration away from Microsoft, as it appears that we cannot
count
on them to consider the reasonable business and operations requirements of
ordinary customers. Further, it is my understanding that Microsoft wants to
change their business model from license sales, to subcriptions. This
product release, with all its assumptions, illustrates how risky that will
be
for the average business or government agency.

Remember what Pepsi did when Coca Cola changed their formula? They took the
day off. I bet McIntosh is celebrating with this one. At least Coca Cola
had the humility and good sense to bring back their classic product.

 

[David R. Norton]

I am so disappointed that Microsoft introduced this version without a

fallback position for the technophobes. I had just

convinced that last of my Word Perfect users to convert to Office, and now

I am going to regret it. There will be a riot against IT if I implement
Office

2007, of that I am sure. People do not like having to constantly re-learn

how to use old tools.

Agreed. But sometimes to improve something it's necessary to start fresh.
People made the transition from earlier versions of Office to newer
versions, they made the transition from earlier versions of Windows to
current versions and they'll make the transition to Office 2007. Sooner or
later your current version will no longer be supported, the time to move to
the new version is ASAP so you can do it gently. You'll need to schedule
your key people for some training, they can help the rest and all will go
smoothly. There's also help available here and from other sources.

Hey, I'm very set in my ways and I was in the earliest beta testing for
Longhorn which has become Vista and.... I absolutely HATED it! All through
the beta program until the final released version it was the only operating
system I'd ever used (I've been in this since the early 1960s) that I
actively disliked. But I know it's the future so I bit the bullet,
installed Vista Ultimate Edition 64bit version and made up my mind I'd live
with it no matter how much I hated it and..... little by little I'm seeing
good in it! Along with Vista, I installed Office 2007 and found I liked it
MUCH better than Office 2003! Believe me, you'll like it when you get used
to it, there will be a transition but it's worth it!

 

[Veronica]

Thanks, Dawn, eacantdraft, and David, for your thoughtful feedback. I will
consider your comments and the resources you suggested, and consider my
question answered fully.

Thanks again!

Veronica

 

[Insight Driver]

I take issue with people who make the statement that you will have a problem
when a product is no longer supported. A word processing program works on a
computer. It does not need support. If the product becomes corrupted it is
because of the nature of comptures. It can be reinstalled. Very few people
ever call or contact Microsoft for issues with older software. People have
learned the quirks and have figured out how to get it to do what they want to
do with it or they have given up and gotten a product that can.

For what its worth I went to Office 2007 because I am the secretary of a
club and it came with my new laptop. As I use my home computer most of the
time, I installed Office 2007 on my home computer as well. I am a
self-learning user of office software and it has taken me a lot of work to
figure out advanced features of the programs. I learned most of what I know
on earlier versions of Word. Right now I can tell I am doing things more
slowly with Word 2007 because all the commands I am used to using are in
different places. It is very frustrating at times trying to find a particular
command for I am not used to thinking of categories on tabs; I learned
where commands were in old versions where that were in illogical locations in
many cases.

I do understand that Office 2007 was designed for a new user's ease of
learning. In doing so it has burdened experienced users who have spent many
hours learning their earlier versions of software. Considering that much of
the change is cosmetic this is infuriating when I have to complete a project
and have to figure out where the commands are to finish it. Furthermore, in
making the product easier for new people to learn it has made it harder for
me to do low-level editing and moving of text on small forms.

 

[gls858]

I take issue with people who make the statement that you will have a problem
when a product is no longer supported. A word processing program works on a
computer. It does not need support. If the product becomes corrupted it is
because of the nature of comptures. It can be reinstalled. Very few people
ever call or contact Microsoft for issues with older software. People have
learned the quirks and have figured out how to get it to do what they want to
do with it or they have given up and gotten a product that can.

For what its worth I went to Office 2007 because I am the secretary of a
club and it came with my new laptop. As I use my home computer most of the
time, I installed Office 2007 on my home computer as well. I am a
self-learning user of office software and it has taken me a lot of work to
figure out advanced features of the programs. I learned most of what I know
on earlier versions of Word. Right now I can tell I am doing things more
slowly with Word 2007 because all the commands I am used to using are in
different places. It is very frustrating at times trying to find a particular
command for I am not used to thinking of categories on tabs; I learned
where commands were in old versions where that were in illogical locations in
many cases.

I do understand that Office 2007 was designed for a new user's ease of
learning. In doing so it has burdened experienced users who have spent many
hours learning their earlier versions of software. Considering that much of
the change is cosmetic this is infuriating when I have to complete a project
and have to figure out where the commands are to finish it. Furthermore, in
making the product easier for new people to learn it has made it harder for
me to do low-level editing and moving of text on small forms.

Are you aware that you can put your most used features on the quick
access tab? Doing this speeds things up significantly.

gls858

 

[David R. Norton, MVP Shell/User]

I take issue with people who make the statement that you will
have a problem when a product is no longer supported. A word
processing program works on a computer. It does not need support.

No longer supported means no updates are available. Consider MS
Office since that's what this group is about, there is an update for
Office that allows older versions to read documents created with
Office 2007 but that update does not apply to versions of Office
older than Office 2000, those running Office 97 (as an example) do
not have the ability to open Office 2007 files. Also, the update
requires Windows 2000, SP4 or a later OS, those running earlier
versions of Windows do not have the ability to open Office 2007
files.

Also, security updates are no longer available for products that are
no longer supported. IIRC, about a month ago I downloaded security
updates for.... Office XP.

So, bottom line, a word processing program most definitely DOES need
support.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Are you aware that you can put your most used features on the quick
access tab? Doing this speeds things up significantly.

Gee, you mean the same functionality as with pre-O2007 toolbars?
Except for not being able to dock the QAT on any edge of application
windows or letting it within the window.

The ribbon is just a new menu. Mercifully it can be collapsed so only
the tabs are visible until selected. As a new menu, no big deal. Most
users at the time survived the XL4 to XL5 menu scramble, and most
users now will survive this one.

Toolbars, OTOH, were a VERY useful part of earlier Office versions,
and the absence of any simple equivalent (just write RibbonX! just
stuff the QAT! [take that however it suits you]) in Office 2007 is
justly savaged. The only remotely compelling reason for the lack of
configuration tools that don't require programming is to lock down the
UI, preventing business users from inadvertently screwing up menus/
toolbars. Why this couldn't have been accomplished with group policies
instead is a mystery. While this might make some sense at work, it's
difficult to consider this a feature for home/personal-use Office
licensees. From a cynical perspective, toolbars were dropped PRECISELY
to prevent users backfilling the Office 2003 menus.

So why would Microsoft want to make it as difficult as possible for
users to have an Office 2003-like UI in Office 2007?

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Driver,

If you're a keyboard shortcut user more than a mouser, many of the older Word/Office shortcuts are (intentionally) still available
in the 2007 versions.

As you mentioned, as the menu choices continued to grow within the Office apps, trying to decide why some of them were put in what
seemed like less than 'logical' choices was certainly frustrating (it wasn't necessarily easier to pick a 'functional' choice
location for the 2007 ones either <g>). Because of this, it's more than just a few folks who have trouble finding things and who,
even after using the tools for years, didn't know that features they wanted were possibly already there.

As a guess, the majority of Word users probably don't use the product daily, or if daily not all day. I've found that overtime that
the items on the QAT I loaded up big time early on are getting less and less used, and from time to time I'll rename the Word.QAT
file to Word.QAT.old and start a new one, just to see which ones I now use either through the keyboard or the ribbon.

Some of the advanced uses may be a bit more unique to find. Can you give an example regarding 'low level editing' and small forms
and how it differed in earlier versions and 2003?

==================
I take issue with people who make the statement that you will have a problem
when a product is no longer supported. A word processing program works on a
computer. It does not need support. If the product becomes corrupted it is
because of the nature of comptures. It can be reinstalled. Very few people
ever call or contact Microsoft for issues with older software. People have
learned the quirks and have figured out how to get it to do what they want to
do with it or they have given up and gotten a product that can.

For what its worth I went to Office 2007 because I am the secretary of a
club and it came with my new laptop. As I use my home computer most of the
time, I installed Office 2007 on my home computer as well. I am a
self-learning user of office software and it has taken me a lot of work to
figure out advanced features of the programs. I learned most of what I know
on earlier versions of Word. Right now I can tell I am doing things more
slowly with Word 2007 because all the commands I am used to using are in
different places. It is very frustrating at times trying to find a particular
command for I am not used to thinking of categories on tabs; I learned
where commands were in old versions where that were in illogical locations in
many cases.

I do understand that Office 2007 was designed for a new user's ease of
learning. In doing so it has burdened experienced users who have spent many
hours learning their earlier versions of software. Considering that much of
the change is cosmetic this is infuriating when I have to complete a project
and have to figure out where the commands are to finish it. Furthermore, in
making the product easier for new people to learn it has made it harder for
me to do low-level editing and moving of text on small forms.>>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*