Office 2007 Custom Menu Options?

T

Tengu

Overall I'm very pleased with the interface changes in Office 2007, but
there's one thing that seems to be gone that I miss.

In the past I've created custom menus and toolbar options in Word & Excel.
They are used to instantly intialize a new document based on templates I've
created that I use often in my work. They open such things as personalized
memo formats, letterhead pages, envelopes with my logo-fied return address,
and so on.

Is there any equivalent to this in the new environment that I'm not seeing?
It's much easier to have an instant menu for these docs than having to go
through the manual new-document-from-template process.

Thanks!
Elliot Berlin
 
C

C. Moya

You can try the Windows Explorer route. Simply save your templates in a
folder of your choice and open them from there. The default action when
double-clicking on a template file is "New."

P.S.
The handy "New Office Document" template dialog used to allow this too
(custom templates)... but MS has (dumbfoundedly) decided to drop this
feature. I find it hilarious (absolutely hilarious) that Office for Mac has
a "Template Manager" that is eons more advanced than Office on Windows.
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi C.,

MS did not drop the New Office Document classic dialog. As in Office 2003 it is an optional install choice for Office 2007 as an
Office 'shared feature'.

In my experience, the Office Button=>New template manager has been more easily used and popular with folks even when we also
installed the New Office Document shortcuts 'above the line' on the Start menu.

==========
You can try the Windows Explorer route. Simply save your templates in a
folder of your choice and open them from there. The default action when
double-clicking on a template file is "New."

P.S.
The handy "New Office Document" template dialog used to allow this too
(custom templates)... but MS has (dumbfoundedly) decided to drop this
feature. I find it hilarious (absolutely hilarious) that Office for Mac has
a "Template Manager" that is eons more advanced than Office on Windows.

--
-C. Moya >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
C

C. Moya

As with machines that have have office preinstalled, IT admins that install
Office with the default features, and users that can't be bothered with
wading through the myriad of esoteric optional components in Setup (whose
description often makes no sense to everyday users-- i.e. VBA Projects Self
Certificate???), the "New Office Document" feature IS a deprecated
feature... and essentially "dropped."

It's sad too. Office is in dire need of a centralized USER-FRIENDLY template
management feature that "New Office Document" could have evolved into. But,
the Office team has done nothing to make it USEFUL. They should take a trip
down to the Mac Office (or, heck, the Works team!) guys to see how to really
makes users' life easier.
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi C.,

Your statement was that the New Office Document feature had been dropped. It has not, nor is it obtusely named, it has been since
the Office 2003 version been made an optional install choice.
Each of the setup items has a help dialog to explain it, briefly and I haven't found IT admins, that specialize in Office or that
work in large organizations that don't invest in learning what they're installing and make decisions and recommendations to
management on feature sets that will be deployed (i.e. the deployment is usually the result of some planning).

The new document/template dialog in Office 2007 is new and as I mentioned, the users who have tried it have rarely used the New
Office Document afterwards except to search for an old 'classic' template. They do find it useful, especially with the large
previews of the different templates.

The Office:mac team is an independent business unit and there are some nice features in the Mac version. Some of those are as a
result of what the Apple OS provides to 'hook' into, others because MS created dialogs where there wasn't an equivalent within the
OS.

For pre-installed (OEM) products, where an IT Admin hasn't specified criteria the 'typical' install is the set of most commonly used
features. No combination is going to make everyone happy. Some will want more, some will want it less comples (too many choices).

==============
As with machines that have have office preinstalled, IT admins that install
Office with the default features, and users that can't be bothered with
wading through the myriad of esoteric optional components in Setup (whose
description often makes no sense to everyday users-- i.e. VBA Projects Self
Certificate???), the "New Office Document" feature IS a deprecated
feature... and essentially "dropped."

It's sad too. Office is in dire need of a centralized USER-FRIENDLY template
management feature that "New Office Document" could have evolved into. But,
the Office team has done nothing to make it USEFUL. They should take a trip
down to the Mac Office (or, heck, the Works team!) guys to see how to really
makes users' life easier.

--
-C. Moya >>
--

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
 
C

C. Moya

The point I was trying to make is that (IMO) Office is in need of
centralized (non app oriented) Project/Template Center (similar to MS Works
and similar to MacOffice). This has been clear for a long long time.
Oftentimes a user will call down to IT (BTW, I'm a developer, not the IT
guy) and ask "how do I create a flyer?"... Word doesn't exactly cater itself
to that (in a friendly way). We'll respond "go to Start Menu | Microsoft
Office Publisher and use that. It has great templates *exactly* for that
purpose. They're awesome.

A centralized Template Center would obviate the need to go searching for the
right tool for the task or go calling for help.
 
T

Tengu

All things considered, activating the New Microsoft Office Document feature
has proven to be the best solution for now. The default window includes my
custom templates so it's not at all a bad option, even though I'd prefer a
menu inside the programs. When I get used to this I probably won't care that
the other option isn't there.
 
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