Can I have my old UI back?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Oreslag
  • Start date Start date
O

Oreslag

Greets All,

I've grown too tired of failing to discover the answer to my question by
navigating the new 'discoverable' interface, so I've decided to pose the
question here: In the new Office 2007 products, is there a way to choose the
deprecated UI? I much prefer the paradigm I've been accustomed to for more
than a decade over dramatically diminished productivity.

Best Regards,
Steven
 
Nope, there's no "deprecated" option (and Microsoft has said emphatically
many times that there never will be!)

On the other hand, the ribbon is all controlled by XML. I do know that third
party vendors are producing replacement ribbons that resemble the old menu
interface for some other products such as Word: not sure if anyone's doing
it for Access.
 
Unfortunately, no! I know the feeling, the only way I have found is to ask
how to find something on this forum.

I have 2002, 2003, and 2007 on my home computer, and after 7 months still
have problems finding stuff on the ribbon.
 
I went fairly quickly from hating the new interface to at least putting it
at close to a tie with the old interface.

The navigation pane I just always show by object type and never use any
other options on that one.

It's the bugs Microsoft sometimes leave in a product that get me.

Just my opinion,
Mark
 
The short answer is no. However, there are add-ins, from 3rd party vendors
(20$ or so - a few links have been provided below but note I have never used
any of them, just passing along info) that replace the typical ribbon with
one that resembles the 'old' menus.

http://www.addintools.com/english/menuaccess
http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/...on_Databases/Classic_Menu_for_Access_2007.htm
http://www.download3k.com/Business-...-Classic-Menu-Toolbar-Interface-Software.html

I can't agree more regarding the ribbons. It has drastically cut my
productivity. As I was once told, the ribbon was designed with the end-user
in mind and for that it was well conceived. However, from a developer's
standpoint, it sucks the bag to put it bluntly. Now you get a single tab
which has 10-20 command where as you once could house 6-7 toolbars houses the
vast majority of all the commands! That said, I may be worth your while to
create your own ribbon tab with the various controls you need on a regular
basis rather than continuously running back and forth between the predefined
tab. Google the subject (custom access ribbon) to find out how and note that
ribbon customization for access is different from all other office programs?!
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.
 
Oreslag said:
Greets All,

I've grown too tired of failing to discover the answer to my question by
navigating the new 'discoverable' interface, so I've decided to pose the
question here: In the new Office 2007 products, is there a way to choose
the
deprecated UI? I much prefer the paradigm I've been accustomed to for more
than a decade over dramatically diminished productivity.
Click to expand...

Many feel your pain. I can offer a bit of help though. Microsoft has a file
named:

ac2003_2007CmdRef.EXE

Use Bing to search for it. It will allow you to readily find everything in
the ribbon if you are familiar with Access 2003 menus.
 
Oreslag said:
I've grown too tired of failing to discover the answer
to my question by navigating the new 'discoverable'
interface, so I've decided to pose the question here:
In the new Office 2007 products, is there a way to
choose the deprecated UI? I much prefer the paradigm
I've been accustomed to for more than a decade over
dramatically diminished productivity.
Click to expand...

No. It was deemed to be financially unfeasible to maintain two interfaces
and allow users to choose the one they thought was friendliest. Of course,
third parties have, with varying degrees of success, created emulations of
the menu interface whose price doesn't indicate that it would have been
financially unfeasible.

Larry
 
=?Utf-8?B?RGFuaWVsIFBpbmVhdWx0?=
That said, I may be worth your while to
create your own ribbon tab with the various controls you need on a
regular basis rather than continuously running back and forth
between the predefined tab.
Click to expand...

I was wondering if it might make sense to use A2003 to create custom
toolbar replacements for all the default Access toolbars, and then
run A2007 in the mode that will display legacy toolbars. You'd have
to import the toolbars into each database, unfortunately, and it
wouldn't swap menus by default based on context. But for long-term
projects, I wonder if it might be less insane-making.

FWIW, I haven't yet done anything but play around with A2007, and
I'm still reserving judgment. Certain things I like about it, but I
sure do have a hard time finding anything on the ribbon -- it seems
completely disorganized to me, but that may be simply because I'm
trying to impose a different organizational scheme on it.
 
Many feel your pain. I can offer a bit of help though. Microsoft
has a file named:

ac2003_2007CmdRef.EXE

Use Bing to search for it.
Click to expand...

Why Bing? Pasting it into Google returns the download link as the
first match.
It will allow you to readily find everything in
the ribbon if you are familiar with Access 2003 menus.
Click to expand...

It's here:

http://tinyurl.com/5lxv8f =>
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=B9574C72-657
F-438C-9DE9-F8F70DD2D40D&displaylang=en

It looks helpful, though not as much so as I had hoped.

I also think it's fascinating that MS chose to implement this tool
in Flash instead of its own Silverlight.
 
Interesting work-around, but now that 2010 is out it will only be temporary
as I believe (do not quote me on this) that legacy toolbars will no longer be
supported at all anymore. So perhaps a solution for 2007, but that's it.
One way or another, we (all of us) have to adapt. It is part of the game.

Also, we haven't even discussed the changes they made to the object browser!
I guess a discussion for another day... :-)

Thank you for the idea, it is worth looking at further.
--
Hope this helps,

Daniel Pineault
http://www.cardaconsultants.com/
For Access Tips and Examples: http://www.devhut.net
Please rate this post using the vote buttons if it was helpful.
 
Why Bing? Pasting it into Google returns the download link as the
first match.
Click to expand...

It returns the first match in Bing as well. There's nothing wrong with
Google, it does seem to return more hits, but I've been very satisfied with
Bing's performance lately. Not only that Google has started advertising on
its start page, and since I have a very fast connection, I choose look at
the neat photgraphy offered by Bing.

I also think it's fascinating that MS chose to implement this tool
in Flash instead of its own Silverlight.
Click to expand...

Silverlight does much more than Flash and suffers from fewer security holes
(according to the security blogs, at least). Adobe is slow to redress
security flaws, while Microsoft has fewer of them now, and fixes them
faster.
 
=?Utf-8?B?RGFuaWVsIFBpbmVhdWx0?=
now that 2010 is out it will only be temporary
as I believe (do not quote me on this) that legacy toolbars will
no longer be supported at all anymore.
Click to expand...

Well, that's a really bad change on their part, unless they provide
a toolbar-to-ribbon converter.
 
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