An add-in for those who miss “classic” Excel
Simon Murphy, aka Smurf on Spreadsheets, has been waging an epic campaign against the Ribbon interface introduced in Excel 2007.
In a recent blog post, Smurf deconstructed a somewhat dodgy chart of Microsoft’s divisional profits to conclude the Office 2007 release had a negligible effect on net revenues – final proof that the UI experiment was a pointless mistake.
In spite of his determination and eloquence, and support from the likes of Simon Hurst and other AccountingWEB users, Microsoft has pressed on with the concept and will be extending it to Outlook and PowerPoint in its Office 2010 release.
But for Excel users who still pine for the old days, Murphy has created Classic Menu Tab, an £11.75 add-in that will make you think you’re back in the pre-2007 boom times of familiar pull down menus. It also makes it possible to “turn off” obstrusive formatting menus that often obscure the areas you are working on.
There are other “classic” menu tools, Smurf admits. But his add-in is an example for all of us: don’t just get mad – make some money while you’re at it.
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Latest questions on 
Search Commands Add-in
You may already know about this and have rejected it, but I like Microsoft's free "Search Commands" add-in for Office 2007 . It appears as an extra at the end of the ribbon. The advantage is that it not only helps you learn where to find commands that are in the ribbon, but also helps you to find commands that are not in the ribbon! It's one of the unsupported things developed by Microsoft Labs. I've been using it for a year or so in Word, Excel and Powerpoint and have had no problems (touch wood!). They have a few other useful add-ins.
Thanks for that...
It got me thinking that it's been a long time since we took a meaningful look at the Excel Add-in market.
What other Excel add-ins do people use and recommend, and for what different purposes.
Have any of you developed your own?
If there's enough response, we'll some time documenting what's available.
ubit do a free version...
I use the ubit menu. Works fine and is free.
In Office 2010 you'll have the option of customising the ribbon, so you can make it look like the traditional menu if you wish.
Not quite
You can customise the Ribbon, but that won't make it look like Office 2003, only like a customised Office 2010.
Put the effort in, and you'll find the Ribbon can work perfectly well. Microsoft carried out a fair bit of research during the development of the Ribbon that showed user-productivity dropped when they first encountered it, but that it rose ABOVE their original level once they'd spent a bit of time with the new version.
I like the Ribbon - I've been through the pain, and I wouldn't go back now.
ASAP utilities
Used to be free - now you need to pay for commercial use.
If you do lots of spreadsheets its full of useful little shortcuts and you can stick your "favorites" into a quick menu.
Has saved me quite a bit of time.
Worth a trial if you do lots of spreadsheets
i too hate the ribbon
2003 was a doddle, now if i use 2007 which i try and avoid i spend far to much time trying to find the resorce and end up banging my head against the wall and shouting at the computer, now why didnt they make 2000 answer back or will 2010
u r a superstar
this is the obvious add-in that BillG should have bundled with office07. the interface he supplies is quirky at its politest, and useless to use.
if only i had the ability to write menus so professionally...! he has missed another important part of of hte market however, i myself have had my own Word and Excel toolbars for years which have the commands YOU NEED on, instead of all the t055 BillG foists on you. e.g. saveas, print...,set area, sort, preview, txt box etc....
I am looking for ...
... a technique, add-in, or third party utility that will allow me to edit commandbars attached to workbooks that were created in Excel 2003 or earlier, the commandbars then appearing on the Add-ins ribbon on Excel 2007 but apparently with no facility to edit them.
Any takers?
With kind regards
Clint Westwood
Toolbars & Commandbars in Excel
Clint, you could try having a look at the useful tutorial on toolbars and commandbars online at:
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/DistributeMacro03.asp
and
http://www.jkp-ads.com/Articles/DistributeMacro04.asp
The whole JKP website has lots of good advice, as well as the "AutoSafe" macro to protect your work. Priceless.