(click the Headline “Welcome Slashdot” to get the links to work)

The Computerworld review I linked to earlier got slashdotted!

Download final RibbonCustomizer V1.1 including Classic UI tabs for Excel, PPT and Word 2007

Documentation/Feature Tour

• Part 0: Installation
• Part 1: Tabs & Groups (watch it as demo)
• Part 2: Individual Commands
• Part 3: Classic UI Tabs
• Part 4: Working with (multiple) customizations
• Part 5: Using RibbonCustomizer for RibbonX development

RibbonCustomizer V1.1 is now available for download. V1.1 is a strongly recommended update for every current user of RibbonCustomizer. Under our lifetime free update guarantee, this is a free update for all customers.

We would like to thank all beta testers for helping make this the most stable release of RibbonCustomizer ever!

New features

• Classic UI tabs for Excel, PowerPoint and Word 2007 in English and German. These are available in the Starter Edition already, and therefore can be used without purchasing RibbonCustomizer.
• Vista standard user support: Standard users in Windows Vista can now install and use RibbonCustomizer.
• Support for Vista with User Account Control (UAC) turned off. Users with administrative rights were previously unable to use RibbonCustomizer if User Account Control was off.
• RibbonCustomizer can now be used with the Office setting requiring application add-ins to be digitally signed.

Improvements

• All known bugs have been fixed.
• Significantly improved performance: V1.1 has a negligible impact on the load time of Office applications
• Improved stability due to V1.1 having a COM Shim.

Quick Installation Instructions

Please remove all previous versions of RibbonCustomizer (including any V1.1 beta) before installing the final V1.1 (1.1.2676.42797).

• Download RibbonCustomizer V1.1

Documentation / Feature Tour

• Part 0: Installation
• Part 1: Tabs & Groups (watch it as demo)
• Part 2: Individual Commands
• Part 3: Classic UI Tabs
• Part 4: Working with (multiple) customizations
• Part 5: Using RibbonCustomizer for RibbonX development

Support

If you require support for V1.1, please use the available support options.

Reviews & Press

RibbonCustomizer has been reviewed and mentioned in the press. Read what others say about RibbonCustomizer. Please let us know, if you know of any other reviews or read about the program in the press.

The Future

Development on the next version of RibbonCustomizer (1.2) will start immediately. We will provide frequent beta builds in order to deliver new features quickly to interested customers. Please check out the RibbonCustomizer Beta Program for more information.

Excel 2007 Classic UI tabs

Today I am making available for download the Classic UI tabs for Excel 2007. The Classic UI tabs for PowerPoint and Word 2007 have already been available for a few days. As with those two, you can display the Classic UI tab as first tab:

Or as last tab:

In order to use the Excel Classic UI tab, you have to have the latest beta version of RibbonCustomizer V1.1 (V1.1.2666.14038) installed.

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):

• Excel 2007 Classic UI as first tab
• Excel 2007 Classic UI as last tab

As with the PowerPoint and Word 2007 Classic UI tabs, you can use the Starter Edition of RibbonCustomizer (simply downloading & installing the add-in) to get the PowerPoint Classic UI tabs for free. Please follow the steps outlined in the Word Classic UI post to install the PPT tabs.

Classic UI tabs in German

The Classic UI tabs for Excel, PowerPoint and Word are now also available in German. They will automatically be displayed in German, if your Office User Interface language is German. Please download the Classic UI tabs for PowerPoint and Word again to get this German language support. The Excel Classic UI tabs already support German.

Excel Classic UI tab in German:

PowerPoint Classic UI tab in German:

Word Classic UI tab in German:

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:

Or as last tab:

In order to use the PowerPoint Classic UI tab, you have to have the latest beta version of RibbonCustomizer V1.1 (V1.1.2666.14038) installed.

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):

• PowerPoint 2007 Classic UI as first tab
• PowerPoint 2007 Classic UI as last tab

As with the Word 2007 Classic UI tabs, you can use the Starter Edition of RibbonCustomizer (simply downloading & installing the add-in) to get the PowerPoint Classic UI tabs for free. Please follow the steps outlined in the Word Classic UI post to install the PPT tabs.

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):

• Word 2007 Classic UI as first tab
• Word 2007 Classic UI as last tab

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.