MS Office 2007: why the Ribbon?

[FunkyDexter]

I just had a "Ribbon Aaaargghh" moment I thought I'd share. Now some of you are probably going to read this and think "Oh you silly, fellow, Funky, I can't believe you didn't know to double click there". I didn't, OK? Heap your scorn on me if you will but I maintain that if I'm dumb there's dumber out there and there really wasn't any help in the product to usher me through my time of frustration.

I've got a spreadsheet with many, many rows in it. One of the columns has wrap text set on. Some very long text has been entered in that column so it was making the rows high enough to be unwieldy. No problem, I thought, I'll make the column a bit wider. I do that and now there's white space above the text in those rows. OK, I need to resize the rows. Irritating that it didn't do it for me but not unreasonable (we tend to complain when office makes assumptions so I'm not going to start complaining that it didn't). I'll do it myself. Select the rows, right click select autores.... hang on, where's the autoresize rows option? It's been removed.

Ah well, it must be in the ribbon somewhere. After all, the ribbon replaces the menu system and should therefore contain all the functions buried with it somewhere, right? OK, damned if I can find it. I've been looking for about half an hour and I just can't track it down. It's more elusive than a ninja weasel.

The help's no good either. It takes me a few minutes to find it because I'm stupidly looking for a menu that says help rather than a 3 mm high icon but I perservere and eventually manage to track it down and type in AutoResize Rows. I the top 100 results back and they're all talking about rows but not a single mention of autoresize. OK, I try again and type in AutoResize without the rows bit. No Results. Gnnn. My blood pressure's starting to rise at this point.

Then, of course, the smart ass next to me leans over and says:
"You do know you can just select the rows and double click on the divider, don't you?".

No. No I bloody don't. I've been using office for well over a decade. If auto-resized rows more times than Emelda Marcos has visited the Shoe Shop and never, in that entire time, have I ever needed to uncover some obscure and, as far as I know, undocumented combination of actions which was about as predictable as a Masonic handshake to do so. Why? Because I could find it on the Damn Menu, that's why. Grrrrrrrr.

[dee-u]

I don't know if I searched enough but is there a Help About in Office 2007?

[FunkyDexter]

I don't think there is, no. That's another irritant to me. To be honest, I find the way the new help system works every bit as annoying as the ribbon.

[JuggaloBrotha]

You can double click the row divider? I don't recall Office 2000 doing that so I assumed Office 2002, 2003 and 2007 couldn't either.

Just gotta remember Office 2007 was made for the computer dumb, so Office 2007 has the dumb too.

[FunkyDexter]

You can double click the row divider?

I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know that. It seems everyone in my office knew about it except me.

[si_the_geek]

I've been using that method for about 10 years, but can certainly understand it not being noticed. I guess that I found it by making the assumption that it would work in a similar way to columns in Explorer etc.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I've been using that method for about 10 years, but can certainly understand it not being noticed. I guess that I found it by making the assumption that it would work in a similar way to columns in Explorer etc.

Holy s**t, you can do that in explorer too? I didn't know that until now either.

[Max Peck]

I tried O2007 for about six months on the computer at the office. Finally decided to go back to 2003. As for my personal use it will be 2003 until the thing just won't run any more. I guess my needs are relatively simple. I'm a bit burned out by the upgrade treadmill as it is.

-Max

[Jenner]

WHA?!?!? OMFG!! I had no idea you could do that either in Excel OR in Explorer!! That's like finding out WindowsKey-E opens a file explorer window!!

Yes, there IS a Help-About in Office 2007. It took me about a half-hour to find once, but here's how you get to it:
Click the funky Office button in the extreme upper-left.
Ignore the menu options, and select the obfuscated button at the bottom that reads "Excel Options" or whatever program it is.
On the next popup window, select "Resources", the last option on the left-hand menu.
Finally, select "About", the last option on the next list.

Takes what, twice as many clicks to get there? *groans*

[RobDog888]

I think they need to bring back the Spy Hunter easter egg from that earlier version of Office (the one before 2003, whichever it was).

I also particularly like the fact that Microsoft named the ribbons the FU Interface. Frankly, I seriously doubt that they overlooked the implications of those initials, as the term has been applied to other projects internally.

I'm currently indifferent to the interface change. What really burns my britches is the proliferation of file name extensions, and the incompatibility between them. I have to send out .doc versions of every .docx file I make.

Either save your documents in 2003 and previous version and send out that or upgrade your users. There is a Word 2007 viewer download from MS too.

[JuggaloBrotha]

Either save your documents in 2003 and previous version and send out that or upgrade your users. There is a Word 2007 viewer download from MS too.

Or the clients/users could just install the Office Compatibility Pack for free and it'll let them open and save Office 2007 file formats in Office 2002/2003 without upgrading a thing.

There is SP2 for the Office Compatibility Pack too

[RobDog888]

Great suggestions!

[techgnome]

Holy s**t, you can do that in explorer too? I didn't know that until now either.

Pressing Ctrl and the numeric pad "+" key will do the same in explorer... ever since Win95 I think... certainly since Win2k.

I've only recently discovered that WindowsKey+L locks the computer...

-tg

[RobDog888]

Yea me too. Only last year did I learn the Win + L

[dee-u]

WHA?!?!? OMFG!! I had no idea you could do that either in Excel OR in Explorer!! That's like finding out WindowsKey-E opens a file explorer window!!

Yes, there IS a Help-About in Office 2007. It took me about a half-hour to find once, but here's how you get to it:
Click the funky Office button in the extreme upper-left.
Ignore the menu options, and select the obfuscated button at the bottom that reads "Excel Options" or whatever program it is.
On the next popup window, select "Resources", the last option on the left-hand menu.
Finally, select "About", the last option on the next list.

Takes what, twice as many clicks to get there? *groans*

Ouch!

[FunkyDexter]

Click the funky Office button in the extreme upper-left

Yay, I've got by own Office button

Or the clients/users could just install the Office Compatibility Pack

You haven't dealt with my users have you. It's all I can do to explain what the space bar's for to some of them.

[JuggaloBrotha]

You haven't dealt with my users have you. It's all I can do to explain what the space bar's for to some of them.

Yea, I haven't dealt with very many of them, probably around 500 or so.

[FunkyDexter]

I didn't say many users, I said my users. My users are special.

[JuggaloBrotha]

I didn't say many users, I said my users. My users are special.

oops, I totally read that wrong. I'm about as dumb as your users then

[FunkyDexter]

I'm about as dumb as your users then

Clearly not. Your use of the space bar is exemplary.

[JuggaloBrotha]

Really?AwwThatMeansSoMuchToMe,ReallyItDoes.ILikeYouSoMuch