I HATE VISTA!

Does anyone know if i can have my xp toolbars and menus back?

Thanks

If it is word in particular, it sounds like you have word 2007, with the ‘ribbon’ thing at the top (it isn’t anything to do with vista, just the latest version of word).

If it is the ribbon that is pissing you off, you can buy a plugin that puts menus/toolbars on it:
http://www.addintools.com/english/menuword/

You do get used to the ribbon after a while, although it is annoying still, and I do keep having to help people use word now, which I never did with older versions.

Joe

Cheers joe.

Yep thats my problem. I really should take the time to learn to use it but just toooooo lazy.

Thanks

Or download the Open Office FOC and stop worrying about Microsoft (sorry for swearing).

i really like the new layout once i got used to it! might be worth perservering!

I HATE VISTA!

THAT’S NOT VISTA. 🙂

It’s Word 2007. It runs on XP too and looks exactly the same as that.

Personally I really like the Office 2007 stuff. The new ribbon interface is really very good. Obviously it is a bit of a change, but once you get used to it it is great. I find it much more productive than trawing through endless menus

The idea supposedly it to make it easier to use for new users as the gadjillions of commands that oraffice now embodies became hidden in obscure submenu beneath submenu.

Sadly the dimwitted code-jockeys forgot to take into account the fact that 99% of all pc users already knew where the important stuff was within office and all that was really needed was a slightly quicker help system.

What’s really annoying though, is the thing that needs a better menu structure, outlook, wasn’t tackled at all.

Graham_S, your right, once your’re used to it, it does work better.

yup, get used to it. i have the classic menu plugin but rarely use it now.

Sadly the dimwitted code-jockeys forgot to take into account the fact that 99% of all pc users already knew where the important stuff was within office and all that was really needed was a slightly quicker help system.

Yeah imagine conducting extensive user interface studies in an attempt to innovate. What idiots eh?
Much better to stick with a crappy menu system we’ve been using since the 80’s and is now well passed its use-by date.

Microsoft don’t change anything: people complain that they are getting stale and there is no point getting the latest version.
Microsoft adopt popular interface ideas: people complain that they are copying Apple/Linux.
Microsoft innovate: people complain they preferred the old way.

🙄

Installed the plug in.

Ahh. thats better, I hate change, me.

It is okay, but some things are silly and hard.

Like: if you want an image that is floating (eg. so it sticks at the bottom of the page), how do you add a caption to it?

The only way I can find is
1) put in the image as inline image
2) right click, do ‘add caption’
3) now create a drawing canvas that is way bigger than the image
4) float the drawing canvas
5) copy and paste the image into the canvas
6) copy and paste the caption into the canvas
7) resize the canvas to fit

It used to be ‘insert image’, ‘tell it to float the image’, ‘add caption’.

Joe

Edit: Aha, you can do insert text box, then insert image, then add caption, then float the text box to where you want it. It is still uite counter intuitive.

Yeah change is bad…

joe: hmm.. not something I’d ever needed to do, but I just had a go.

Insert->Picture (inserts it and automatically and switches me to the Format tab)
Format->Position->Bottom Center (moves the image, showing me a preview as I hover over the options)
Right click on Picture and Insert Caption.

Job done.

The new interface is good; the problem is it was a huge transformation for existing users to get to grips with. That is no way to sell enterprise-level software.
XP took off because admins could default it’s funky new appearance back to NT-style with GPOs and so the business-users (who, to be frank are the people who are MS’s real revenue generators) could roll it out to the enterprise without having to invest in expensive end-user training.

Vista in itself looks great. Yes for power users the performance is wicket-wack, but for general word processing and running Excel nobody’ll notice. The problem is that if you roll it out to someone who is used to XP though: they’ll struggle to get to grips with where everything is. That period of familiarisation costs businesses money. Ent-Archs know that and as a result Vista’s stayed on the shelf, MS consequently relying on OEM-sales to say that it’s the biggest-selling OS ever.

They did it again recently with Exchange 2007. Everyone knew that having a mail system you could allow any point-and-click-jockey to administer was a generally bad idea. Stable platforms were always command-line lead. Unfortunately MS in their infinite wisdom decided “ok, we’ve listened to you, we’ll just get rid of the GUI entirely for most functionality and invent this brand new scripting language to do anything complex”. SMEs couldn’t afford to send their support teams on 5-day ILT courses for PowerShell as well as the upgrade training for E2k7. Consequently that too stayed firmly in its shrink-wrapping until SP1 when MS (after a severe ravaging both in the industry press and amongst the IT-pro community) caved in and heavily reworked the GUI functionality.

Arrogant businesses that inflict a lack of choice die: look at Sun (‘you can’t put Linux on this sir’, ‘no that generic SCSI disk can’t be used with our hardware’) currently being cut up into little bits by whoever bids the lowest; IBM (great kit, they invented the PC: were so unbelievably miffed about the failure of OS/2 vs win95 that they refused to put a windows key on their hardware or supply scrollable mice) flogged their dwindling workstation business to the Chinese for pence; Novel: yes you can manage any object in our directory service, apart from windows computers. Now pedalling re-branded open-source OS’s to third-world governments. Genius! Campag: ‘no you can’t use our mechs with those shifters’. When was the last time you saw anything other than a very, very high-end road bike with campag gear?

Office 2007 would have flown off the shelves if there was a simple ‘Switch to Classic Menus’ GPO that could be set.

I don’t mind innovation. I don’t mind Microsoft products in general. It’s the way MS occasionally inflict a lack of choice on the consumer that stinks.

Yes for power users the performance is wicket-wack

Is that good or bad? I’m a “power user” and I find Vista notably faster than XP was on the same machine.

Office 2007 would have flown off the shelves if there was a simple ‘Switch to Classic Menus’ GPO that could be set.

Disagree – the “Switch to Classic Menu” is a complete pain in the arse that provides a crutch in the short term but completely stalls adoption of new interface ideas and greatly adds to confusion in the long run.

You end up with instructions like “Righ click on the icon or if you are using the old style interface then got to File->New. Then press the Okay button or if you’re using the old style interface check the box and press Yes.” etc etc

People hate change but as I pointed out, 20 years ago Word was in DOS. We’re still at the very beginning of the computer revolution. If people have mental fits when a menu gets changed into toolbar then how are they going to cope with 3D immersive holographics or whatever the future brings?

I don’t mind innovation. I don’t mind Microsoft products in general. It’s the way MS occasionally inflict a lack of choice on the consumer that stinks.

How many Apple products have a “Switch back to MacOS” option on them?

Change is good. Embrace it or retire and let the youngsters do it.

joe: hmm.. not something I’d ever needed to do, but I just had a go.

Insert->Picture (inserts it and automatically and switches me to the Format tab)
Format->Position->Bottom Center (moves the image, showing me a preview as I hover over the options)
Right click on Picture and Insert Caption.

Job done.

Now try and do that in a document that has to be written in a .doc file (ie. in ‘compatibility mode’ for submission to a publisher. Suddenly the ‘insert caption’ disappears after step 1.

Joe

You’re right. For the final step I had to go to “References->Insert Caption” instead.
Took me nearly 15 seconds to find. I can see why people get confused 🙄

You’re right. For the final step I had to go to “References->Insert Caption” instead.
Took me nearly 15 seconds to find. I can see why people get confused

Okay, you’ve now managed to insert a broken caption, which doesn’t move when the picture is moved, doesn’t wrap correctly, and generally messes up any time you edit the document. Well done.

I can see why people get confused too!

Joe

Erm but the picture doesn’t move. It is stuck to the bottom of the page as you requested.

If you do need to move the pic about then you can always just Group the pic and the caption together. Select both and press “Layout->Group” and they’ll stick together wherever you put them.