Excel 2007 Nightmare

Macros from earlier versions (#macros)

• Emailed pesonal.xls from Windows 2000 system, with Excel down saved as personal.xlsb as was created in Excel 2007, but was not accepted so saved instead as C:\Users\userid\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\personal.xls   and appears to be accepted (the macros are found) as all files in XLSTART are opened by Excel. (2007-08-28)
• Next problem is to install custom toolbar buttons in Excel 2007.  Can see they can be loaded from an adaption of Menu Editor, but nothing to show what the results look like. (and FINALLY GOT AROUND TO IT 2007-09-17, see below).

Ergonomic Hell (#nightmare)

Everything in Excel 2007 is an ergonomic nightmare  and takes at least one more click for anything that was in a menu, and because things have to be spread out on the ribbon they don't line up very well and is so disorganized for drill down type of viewing that you had in menus and hyperlinks.  The logical arrangement is lost because you can't read what you need in a small viewing area, which is one of the key elements in ergonomics.  Will try to get around these obstacles as best I can but have already wasted two months so far (2007-10-13) and have just skimmed the surface and can hardly use Excel at all at this point.

Loss of Data Hell, see Change of Ctrl+A.

Loss of Menus Hell, see this page concerning Ribbon and Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar (qat).

Loss of Help, a steady decline that started with Excel 2000. 

Excel 2007 Ribbon (#ribbon)

1. Make Developer Ribbon Tab visible:  Office Button, Excel Options, Click Popular, Show Developer tab in the Ribbon check box.
2. Ron's Excel Tips http://www.rondebruin.nl/tips.htm
3. Menu for favorite macros in Excel 2007 (for all workbooks) http://www.rondebruin.nl/qat.htm
4. J.Latham reported 2007-09-16 that a file with menu in Excel 2003 would be found in Excel 2007 in the Add-ins (last section on the ribbon).
   C:\Users\StandardUser\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\personal.xls
5. To add missing items back to the Status Bar: right-click on status bar

Customize Quick Access Toolbar   (#qat)

If you don't have such a list suitable for input into Ron's "Menu for favorite macros..." it is the same arrangement as needed for John Walkenbach's (Tip 53). 

You can create the worksheet from your old Excel (pre Excel 2007) using Barhopper -- fixup for Restored Toolbars (also List of Menu Items) macro, Barhopper -- fixup for Restored Toolbars, and -- Listing of Menu Items — The macro even works with Excel 2007 though you should have the workbook you used to create the qat as a hidden workbook in your XLSTART directory.  The code for both barhopper_ws macro and the macro if invokes, BarHop_ws, are found on the related code page, and creates the a new worksheet with the data in the format required.

Since the workbook MyMacroFile.xlsb is now in place within C:\Users\<USER>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART
The QAT can be refreshed by repeating the last part of Ron's instructions:

• View, Window, Unhide -- choose MyMacroFile.xlsb   (as marked with RED on the larger image above).
• Make changes as necessary to the "MenuSheet" worksheet, then
• You can click on the  Refresh Menu  button on the "MenuSheet" worksheet of MyMacroFile.xlsb workbook example to see if your changes are correct.
• When It is OK click on the  Hide Save  button also on the worksheet..

All of these contortions does not really make the ribbon that usable.  You've still lost menus, and the ability to directly rearrange and modify your menus, and add in loads of macros in a tree structured menu.  This is obviously a left/right brain issue, people who use words vs. people who use graphics.  To help understand the differences, perhaps the first article helps.

• Brain Differences, Michael P Pitek, III, Creativity and the Right Side of the Brain
• Right Brain, Left Brain, Whole Brain, No Brain? - Beyond Her Book - Blog on Publishers Weekly, Barbara Vey.  Test by Margie Lawson on which I got 10 (middle brain).  Pictures are much better than taking a test.
• The Right Brain vs Left Brain | The ramblings of Steven Macintyre, do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? Initially clockwise, but about 50-50.

Next step do something with the buttons (#buttons)

Will have to find out how to add buttons of my own creation to Excel 2007.  This relates to material in my Toolbars page, that will have to be\ made to work in Excel 2007 rather than just a cobbled together QAT that include a submenu of what were my toolbar buttons.

System Taskbar (#tasks)

Excel users that want to see multiple instances of Excel workbooks on the system taskbar should also refer to taskbar on my Excel freeze.htm page, and refer also to my Windows Vista page.

Things improved in Excel 2007   (#improved)

Is anything actually improved in Excel 2007 other than the obvious increase from 65,536 rows by 256 columns to 1,048,576 rows by 16,884 columns, and the multirow formula bar (expanded on right).

Inquisitive vs. Intuitive -- Ribbons vs. Menus (#nonsequitur)

Four Big Lies (#fourbiglies)

What were the design goals of the Office Fluent user interface and how were they determined to be top priorities? We wanted to deliver new capabilities that empower people to get the results they want, faster. We had four major design goals:
  1. Make it easier for people to find and use product features.
  2. Reduce design clutter and interruptions.
  3. Make it easier for people to discover the capabilities they need.
  4. Support the creation of great-looking documents.

Help with Excel 2007 (#help)

More getting used to Excel 2007

Help and How-to Home Page (office.microsoft.com), see Browse Help and How-to by Product Some Old keys, you had better learn for Excel 2007
– Excel keyboard shortcuts 2000 - 2007, or
– Keyboard shortcuts - Excel - Microsoft Office Online Excel 2003 (use the "Show All")

• Ctrl+1, Format Cells, at least once there the dialog is same as before
• Shift+F3, Function Wizard (actually you can still click on [fx] next to address bar)
• Use the row/column/cell context menus to insert/delete rows/columns/cells.
• Ctrl+F1 to minimize most of ribbon (or double-click on a ribbon tab to toggle)
• Not at all happy about the loss of Ctrl+A

Forced to Use Ribbon instead of Short cut keys, or assisted menus

• Previously you could use Ctrl+Edit(menu) to copy cell(s) as a picture, but with Excel 2007, you must use the ribbon to copy as picture or to paste as picture. Copy with Ctrl+C, then Home on the Ribbon, then the Paste with the drop-down then choose "Paste as Picture". [ref]

Convolution

Not convoluted enough for you see the Microsoft help Excel Ribbon mapping workbook old menus to new ribbon (not a conversion), or the same information in Guide (Abobe Flash), or as a web page Help and How-To Home page (office.microsoft.com).  *** Interactive Flash showing 2003 menus.*** 

Those two guides are not of much help when it comes to what you need to use for Tools,Options so here is something typical of what was Tools, Options, View (tab), select the options horizontal scroll bar and vertical scroll bar is now the following:

Use the Office Button in upper left corner, at the bottom of that dialog is Options, then on the left choose the Advanced button (red), then scroll down on the right side to "Display options for this workbook" (blue stripe) which is about 1/3 of way down, then checkmark "Show horizontal scroll bar" and "Show vertical scroll bar"

ergonomics

The word ergonomics was created in 1857 by Wojciech Jastrzebowski, a Polish scholar, derived from the Greek words ergon (work) and nomos (principle or laws).[1]  Ergonomics is often defined as the practice of designing the job to fit the worker, not forcing the worker to fit the job.[2]. The study of ergonomics took off with IBM studying positioning of keyboards and chairs, and how something is quickly found (not necessarily where you expect it but at least next to where you expect it) about 1976-1986.[3]

Jumping the Shark

Here's a question for the Excel Development Team:  Did you actually use Excel, or are you just trying to make it better?

Related   (#related)

• Excel - My Excel Pages
• Excel keyboard shortcuts 2000 - 2007
• Daily Dose of Excel » Blog Archive » Excel 2007 FAQ (Draft), John Walkenbach
• Excel -- Excel 2010 Articles List, Debra Dalgleish, Microsoft is publishing information about the next release of Excel.
  
• Office 2007 interface prototypes - istartedsomething, video by Jensen Harris from the Office 2007 design team gave a very rare presentation at Microsoft’s MIX08 event about not what the Office 2007 Fluent (Ribbon) interface is about, but instead how it came to be and what other concepts they tried.
  This is a terrific video that describes the development process that went into the Office Ribbon, which leaves only one question:  how long will it take Microsoft to admit that it was a bigger mistake than Clippy and how long will it take to get it all back into real menus that can used, ordered, modified and added to by users.
• Official Google Blog: Eye-tracking studies: more than meets the eye.
  Keep in mind that not everything can not be in the prime spot, and once you know where something is, you really don't have to spend time looking for it (basic ergonomics).  Since users don't really know exactly what they are looking for, a web search results page is a better candidate for eye-tracking studies than the Microsoft Excel Ribbon replacement of toolbar menus fiasco.  But caution is always needed, people soon tire of looking at sore thumbs.