SubscribeClassic UI for Word 2007 with RibbonCustomizer - for free
Many users wish the old, classic UI (menus & toolbars) back when they first start using Office 2007. Evidence of that is the existence of two tools by now that offer a classic UI for Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2007 (ToolbarToggle and Classic Menu for Office 2007). Personally, I am a big fan of the Ribbon and are not convinced of offering some sort of Classic UI in Office 2007. There are a multitude of reasons for that:
- Keyboard shortcuts to open menus (e.g. Alt-F) cannot be used with a Classic UI, because Office intercepts those shortcuts and either offers a 2007 feature triggered by it, or lets you enter a complete 2003 menu shortcut in order to trigger the command it would ordinarily have triggered in 2003. A Classic UI in 2007 is therefore mainly going to be controlled by the mouse.
- Where do you put new features of Office 2007? A major reason that Microsoft decided to do the Ribbon is that they did not really know where to put all the new 2007 features in the menus and toolbars. A Classic UI will therefore always have difficulties with new features.
- The Ribbon has contextual tabs that appear once a user inserts or activates an object. That means, that whatever tab holds the Classic UI will no longer be in the foreground. Alternatively, as done by ToolbarToogle, you can have a Classic UI in a task pane and therefore visible independent of whatever tab the Ribbon is showing currently, but you have to sacrifice additional screen real estate for that.
- A Classic UI lets one defer learning the Office 2007 Ribbon. Considering the investment Microsoft made into the Ribbon, it can be expected that all future Office versions will have the Ribbon as UI. Menus and toolbars will not return to Microsoft Office. If one defers learning the Ribbon, one will eventually be simply behind.
Despite these objections to a Classic UI in Office 2007, I decided to provide one for Word 2007 using my RibbonCustomizer add-in. Integrating a Classic UI into RibbonCustomizer gives you the best of both worlds: You can have a familiar UI around while you need it and at the same time customize your Ribbon the way you want it. RibbonCustomizer with a Classic UI is a forward-looking solution that embraces the Ribbon.
Currently, I only provide a Classic UI for Word 2007. I plan on adding one for Excel and PowerPoint 2007 shortly. I have no plans to support Access and Outlook 2007 with a Classic UI.
The Classic UI tab can either be listed as first tab:
Or as last one:
The Classic UI support is really a demonstration of the reusability and ease of distribution of customizations created with RibbonCustomizer. All you need to do is to download the two RIBX files (see below), and then add them to your Customization Schemes in RibbonCustomizer. To do so, you first open the Customization Schemes dialog via the bottom half of the Customize Ribbon split button on Word’s View tab, select Customization Schemes and then More as shown in the following screenshot.
In the dialog, click Add.
Then find the location where you downloaded either or both RIBX files. If you want to the Classic UI as first tab, pick the WordClassicUIAsFirstTab.ribx file as shown in the following screenshot.
Installing Classic UI for Word 2007 with RibbonCustomizer
In order to be able to get the Classic UI tabs, you absolutely have to run the latest beta version of RibbonCustomizer 1.1 (V1.1.2666.14038). If you downloaded and installed a beta version of 1.1 before Friday, April 20, then you do not have the latest one. I found a bug while working on the Classic UI tab in RibbonCustomizer and it is fixed in that particular version. No earlier version (including 1.0) will be able to open these particular RIBX files. The good news is that this particular build will most likely become the stable 1.1 version sometime next week.
Once you have installed the latest 1.1 build, you can download the two RIBX files and save them anywhere you like (best to download via right-click, save as):
The title of this blog post mentions that you can get a Classic UI for Word 2007 for free. How is this possible? The Starter Edition of RibbonCustomizer (which you get for free just by downloading and installing RibbonCustomizer) allows you to load up to three RIBX packages per Ribbon. That means, you can download & install RibbonCustomizer from the link above, and then load the Classic UI RIBX files with it into your copy of Word 2007 completely for free.
April 20th, 2007 at 21:47
Very cool Patrick - I was going to do a spiel on those two but will focus on yours for my first write-up.
I assume MS lets you guys know what is coming out in advance.
Will try it and comment. Word 2007 is fine - it gets those with TERROR in their EYES to sigh with great relief. Me I don’t need it and think it is a waste of a good tab and just makes one lazy when learning a new look and feel. To each is own. Everyone at their own pace.
How is the VBA going (groups customisation etc.) …PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE!
I’m sure you will please many people Patrick with this customisation for FREE.
April 20th, 2007 at 21:54
Hi Fred,
MS doesn’t give us any advance notice on anything.
I haven’t started development work on 1.2 (macros, etc) yet. I really have to wait and make sure that 1.1 doesn’t have any major bug before I can dig in and add these features. So this Classic UI stuff, updating my website and a large number of blog posts is what I am doing during this waiting period.
Patrick
April 20th, 2007 at 22:03
Patrick
I installed the updated yesterday (my Friday) and this morning I installed new new Trial Tools… and you add-in was unchecked when I opened Word. RC seems to uncheck as an add-in so I just added it back in.
I just right click save target as and I get xxxx.XML as the extension - did I miss something?
April 20th, 2007 at 22:14
RC is being disabled all the time. I unchecked Classic and Tools but RC shows error. I renamed .xml which is how the default save to .ribx? Doesn’t like obviously?
Help!
April 20th, 2007 at 22:38
Fred,
save it as .ribx. I think IE7 has the annoying habit of changing file extensions when you download a file.
Can you enable it, close & reopen Word. Then open the Customize Ribbon dialog, hit OK. Is it disabled then?
(BTW, this is better a conversation to have in the forums).
Patrick
April 21st, 2007 at 21:05
[…] Yesterday, I announced the availability of Classic UI tabs with RibbonCustomizer for Word 2007. Today, I am announcing the availability of Classic UI tabs for PowerPoint 2007. As with the ones for Word, you can show the Classic UI as first tab: […]
April 21st, 2007 at 21:28
“If one defers learning the Ribbon, one will eventually be simply behind.”
I don’t think so. Many businesses will not be “upgrading” because the new format is too different.
They will be asking new employees if they know the previous versions of office.
Martin Gifford.
April 21st, 2007 at 21:30
Martin,
true, but for how long? Let’s assume the next version of Office comes out in 2009. How many businesses will still be on pre-2007 after that release then?
Patrick
April 27th, 2007 at 4:00
Hallo Patrick
das zusatz-addin ist ja nicht schlecht.
es würde aber auch oft reichen, wenn man die Funktion rechteMausTaste->anpassen von den vorigen Office Versionen wieder bekäme.
Weißt du wie man hierzu kommen kann ?
Gruß
Raimund
April 27th, 2007 at 9:12
Raimund,
das Problem ist, dass Microsoft diese Funktion nicht in Office 2007 eingebaut hat. Es ist daher entweder mein Add-In, oder ein eine andere Anpassung via RibbonX.
Patrick
May 8th, 2007 at 9:10
[…] Download Starter Edition, sau đó download gói Ribbon Classic UI miễn phí (một file RIBX, là tập hợp được định nghĩa sẵn của các menu) ở Word 2003 cho Word 2007. (Một file RIBX cho Excel và một file cho PowerPoint sẽ được thêm vào ngay sau khi chúng ta kích chuột và sẽ được tích hợp vào bản phát hành cuối cùng của phiên bản Version 1.1 trong thời gian ngắn tới). Sau đó cài đặt các file RIBX trong Starter Edition (bạn có thể cài đặt ba file cho từng ứng dụng). Cuối cùng, về cơ bản bạn có Classic Menu mà không phải tốn xu nào. […]
May 26th, 2007 at 22:13
help me! i can’t download.
May 26th, 2007 at 22:15
Download V1.1 and you’ll have the Classic UI tabs: http://ribboncustomizer.com
May 7th, 2008 at 18:01
[…] Download Starter Edition, sau đó download gói Ribbon Classic UI miễn phí (một file RIBX, là tập hợp được định nghĩa sẵn của các menu) ở Word 2003 cho Word 2007. (Một file RIBX cho Excel và một file cho PowerPoint sẽ được thêm vào ngay sau khi chúng ta kích chuột và sẽ được tích hợp vào bản phát hành cuối cùng của phiên bản Version 1.1 trong thời gian ngắn tới). Sau đó cài đặt các file RIBX trong Starter Edition (bạn có thể cài đặt ba file cho từng ứng dụng). Cuối cùng, về cơ bản bạn có Classic Menu mà không phải tốn xu nào. […]