Long Live the Office Toolbar!

Better late to the party …

Well, it would seem Microsoft has realized we are now using large displays, high DPI monitors and their Ribbon was a huge waste of space. Only took them 10+ years! So they are finally looking to give us back a leaner/meaner Toolbar Style Ribbon.

Microsoft Boldly Plans to Revert the Ribbon Back to a Toolbar

So they had Toolbars, they switched to Ribbons, and now they are going back to Toolbars. Hmmm… Enough said I think. And it’s not even April Fool’s!!!

Sadly, as per the usual releases from Microsoft, no mention of Access, but one can assume it will be included in this change as it is part of Office.

Thank you Arvin for sharing this news.

5 responses on “Long Live the Office Toolbar!”

  1. john doe

    still only one toolbar visible, you need to click another tab to see another toolbar… office 2003 (and access) was more more productive…

    1. Daniel Pineault Post author

      No argument on that from me. I am in total agreement!

      All in all, the ribbon, because of the way MS has chosen to implement a half baked technology, is a miserable failure (from the developer’s perspective)! Actually, even from the end-user’s perspective also. Where I used to be able to load 6 toolbars containing 50 icons (or more) where I had all the commands I needed at my finger tips, I now have 1 ribbon containing 10-20 commands. You end up spending your time flipping back and forth, all day, between tabs! It is never ending and tedious after a while. This is MS’ idea of empowering the end-user? Come on! But hey, it looks cool dude! This is the best that the best minds at MS could come up with; seriously!!!

      1. Philipp

        Well, for applications like Access, where I consider myself to be an advanced user, I fully agree. The Ribbon is a waste of space, it is clumsy to use and slows me down. Some commands are incredibly hard to find. (How do I turn on/off the Rulers in form design view?).
        However, in applications like PowerPoint, which I only use twice or thrice a year, I perceive the Ribbon a huge usability improvement to me as a very causal user. Having the most common commands in better, contextual view, is probably very helpful for most novice users.
        So, its not all bad with the Ribbon.