Reasons to use the old style menus in 2007

H

Heidi

I want the 2007 menus back:

I'm dyslexic and the new ones are almost unusable for me because it's too
distracting.
I wear bi-focals and need to do back bends to see the ribbon bar.
Short cut keys seem to have disappeared.
Learning the new menus is not the issue, it's needing to do something and
having to go to help for hours. Every time I spend the time it's a reminder
of how happy I am :(. I don't have nor want to make the time to get things
done.

BTW: This new question screen is in super tiny print. Plus the "type your
message' popup on this field is keeps reappearing as I'm typing my message.
How do I turn off informational popups.

If Microsoft won't give us a drop down menu option with short cut keys, I
want to install 2003. Does 2003 work with vista? And where do I find the
directions to backdate my Office Professional version from 2007 to 2003. If
I can't do that on vista, I want directions on how to go back to XP on my
week old machine. Spending yet another $30 for a third party menu systems
is not an option, I don't want to worry about upgrades, etc.

Microsoft, you need to hear this. No kidding, I'm being very polite in
showing the amount of frustration.
 
E

Earl Kiosterud

Heidi,

You can do a system restore to get 2003 back. It doesn't affect your saved files, but does
roll back installed software. In XP, it's in the Accessories group -- don't know about
Vista. If you haven't installed other software, done updates, etc, then use a recent
restore point that is before you installed Excel 2007.

As a side note, when you install a new release of something like Excel, you can choose a
different folder at that point in the install wizard, and it will keep the old software.
Then you can run either.
--
Earl Kiosterud
www.smokeylake.com

Note: Top-posting has been the norm here.
Some folks prefer bottom-posting.
But if you bottom-post to a reply that's
already top-posted, the thread gets messy.
When in Rome...
 
H

Heidi

Thanks Earl, I'll give installing the 2003 a try. Which of course brings up
a whole new issue. When I purchased this computer a week ago, vista and
temporary office were installed.

Because my old computer had sp and office pre-installed and I purchased the
professional. When I called MS Support on how to upgrade it onto my new
computer, they basically laughed at me because I don't have the original
install disks. And even though I have the upgrade disks, need the first
version to prove I upgraded. Which is why I purchased the 2007 full version
because apparently MS needs the extra money. Course I got the new computer
because I have a nasty reloading Trojen that MS Defender and Norton detects
but do not completely remove, so my old computer keeps getting reinfected at
every boot and will need to be wiped out. So I won't be using the software
that comes from that machine. OK, I'm just venting here, sorry. I've been a
loyal MS fan for about 20 years until 3 weeks ago. Just called IBM to find
out if Lotus has a Vista version, they do not but I'll be watching for it.

BTW, the store that I purchased my computer from said that MS will stop
support on XP and office 2003 within a year. We're hosed.

I was just playing with the Excel pivot tables, they dropped the drag and
drop in the spreadsheet, have to go use the pivot side screen to make it
happen. Also, it's a bear to figure out how to show row detail and
subtotals. Hard to get the page drop down along with the detail in the pivot
table itself. I've been tested as an Excel Expert, am a pivot table guru and
now have to relearn from scratch. Pivot tables were Excels crowning glory
.... used to be. Everything I do takes way too long, but now feel like there
is no other choice. I make big bucks to be an expert and financial systems
analyst, now with 2007 consider myself a beginner.

Thanks for letting me vent ... off to try again.
 
R

Randy

Thanks Earl, I'll give installing the 2003 a try. Which of course brings up
a whole new issue. When I purchased this computer a week ago, vista and
temporary office were installed.

Because my old computer had sp and office pre-installed and I purchased the
professional. When I called MS Support on how to upgrade it onto my new
computer, they basically laughed at me because I don't have the original
install disks. And even though I have the upgrade disks, need the first
version to prove I upgraded. Which is why I purchased the 2007 full version
because apparently MS needs the extra money. Course I got the new computer
because I have a nasty reloading Trojen that MS Defender and Norton detects
but do not completely remove, so my old computer keeps getting reinfected at
every boot and will need to be wiped out. So I won't be using the software
that comes from that machine. OK, I'm just venting here, sorry. I've been a
loyal MS fan for about 20 years until 3 weeks ago. Just called IBM to find
out if Lotus has a Vista version, they do not but I'll be watching for it.

BTW, the store that I purchased my computer from said that MS will stop
support on XP and office 2003 within a year. We're hosed.

I was just playing with the Excel pivot tables, they dropped the drag and
drop in the spreadsheet, have to go use the pivot side screen to make it
happen. Also, it's a bear to figure out how to show row detail and
subtotals. Hard to get the page drop down along with the detail in the pivot
table itself. I've been tested as an Excel Expert, am a pivot table guru and
now have to relearn from scratch. Pivot tables were Excels crowning glory
... used to be. Everything I do takes way too long, but now feel like there
is no other choice. I make big bucks to be an expert and financial systems
analyst, now with 2007 consider myself a beginner.

Thanks for letting me vent ... off to try again.








- Show quoted text -

Heidi,

Perhaps you should try to download OpenOffice.org at, believe it or
not, www.openoffice.org.

This is a free productivity suite that has a spreadsheet component
named Calc, that is very similar to the earlier version of excel. It
isn't an exact clone, but does a good job, and may help you out. The
alternative is probably to find your original Excel 2003 CD.
 
M

magneticpoles

Thanks Earl, I'll give installing the 2003 a try. Which of course brings up
a whole new issue. When I purchased this computer a week ago, vista and
temporary office were installed.

Because my old computer had sp and office pre-installed and I purchased the
professional. When I called MS Support on how to upgrade it onto my new
computer, they basically laughed at me because I don't have the original
install disks. And even though I have the upgrade disks, need the first
version to prove I upgraded. Which is why I purchased the 2007 full version
because apparently MS needs the extra money. Course I got the new computer
because I have a nasty reloading Trojen that MS Defender and Norton detects
but do not completely remove, so my old computer keeps getting reinfected at
every boot and will need to be wiped out. So I won't be using the software
that comes from that machine. OK, I'm just venting here, sorry. I've been a
loyal MS fan for about 20 years until 3 weeks ago. Just called IBM to find
out if Lotus has a Vista version, they do not but I'll be watching for it.

BTW, the store that I purchased my computer from said that MS will stop
support on XP and office 2003 within a year. We're hosed.

I was just playing with the Excel pivot tables, they dropped the drag and
drop in the spreadsheet, have to go use the pivot side screen to make it
happen. Also, it's a bear to figure out how to show row detail and
subtotals. Hard to get the page drop down along with the detail in the pivot
table itself. I've been tested as an Excel Expert, am a pivot table guru and
now have to relearn from scratch. Pivot tables were Excels crowning glory
... used to be. Everything I do takes way too long, but now feel like there
is no other choice. I make big bucks to be an expert and financial systems
analyst, now with 2007 consider myself a beginner.

Thanks for letting me vent ... off to try again.








- Show quoted text -

Heidi,

You could try downloading OpenOffice.org from www.openoffice.org. The
Calc spreadsheet is largely compatible with Excel, except for VBA, and
is more like older versions of Excel than Excel 2007.

Hopefully you can find your original Office 2003 CD.
 
I

iliace

You can go to PivotTable Options, and under Display tab select
"Classic PivotTable layout" to restore drag/drop functionality. I
find myself doing this with every PivotTable I create in Excel 2007.
 
H

Heidi

That works!!! Much easier.

I did notice that it stopped working after playing with it, but it was
simple enough to turn it back on. Also didn't always let me put the values
into the page section. Sometimes dragging one field either on the pivot
table itself or the right field list would make several fields disappear at
once on the pivot table, so watch the more complicated ones and save often.
Repeat, save very often.

Tried to add a row/column to the original data and couldn't find where the
data range was hiding so ended up doing inserts to have it included. And
like the old version needed to do a refresh when changing the table data,
which is fine, just need to know that you have to do it.

Well that was 2 minutes of playing, time to do something else. Thanks
again everyone for your help.

Heidi
 
H

Heidi

THANKS! I'll give it a try.

Randy said:
Heidi,

Perhaps you should try to download OpenOffice.org at, believe it or
not, www.openoffice.org.

This is a free productivity suite that has a spreadsheet component
named Calc, that is very similar to the earlier version of excel. It
isn't an exact clone, but does a good job, and may help you out. The
alternative is probably to find your original Excel 2003 CD.
 

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