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While the new Office 2007 ribbon is neat / cute / whatever, this particular old dog is familiar with the traditional Word and Excel menus. How can I get those menus back? Is there a setting for doing that, or is a third-party product required? I trust I'm not the only one who preferred the old menus. :-)

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Anybody care to up-vote me once more so I get my 15 rep & can start voting myself? kthx :-) – BasicallyMoney.com Oct 17 at 1:40

5 Answers

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I am going to trust that the old dog can still learn new tricks!!

The answers is you can't. Not really, but you can get close until you get familiar with the new layout.

One way is to create a fairly complex RibbonXML script that makes the new ribbon look a lot like the old menus. An example is shown on my website here:

http://gregmaxey.mvps.org/Ribbon_Menu_Controls.htm

(Near the bottom of the page).

I am fairly certain that you can purchase a third party Add-In that has the required script if you don't want to do it yourself.

Another method (if you still have access to Word2003) is to create a template with a custom toolbar that contains all of the built-in menus. Save this template in the Word startup folder and when Word2007 opens these menus will appear on the AddIns tab.

Good luck.

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3rd party add-in did it. I got Classic Menus for Office. addintools.com/english/menuoffice – BasicallyMoney.com Oct 28 at 1:49
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As Greg correctly pointed out you can't get it back, but if you know where something is and are trying to find it on the ribbon then the interactive reference guide is great as you can click on the old menu item in Word 2003 and it shows you where to find it in 2007.

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I upvoted Robert's answer because that's the place I always point people who are learning the new Office user interface. Just commit to learning the new interface and you'll get it. Do you use many keyboard shortcuts? I think most of those have stayed the same.

Of course, you could uninstall Office 2007 and re-install Office 2003. That will give you all the old menus and toolbars! Just download and install the Compatibility Pack to add the ability to open and save the new 2007 file formats.

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You could go through the menus and painstakingly add various commands to the QAT (Quick Access Toolbar)

Right click the QAT, choose "Customize", add commands as needed.

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Visit http://www.officelabs.com and grab the add-on "SearchCommands". It will add a ribbon tab where you can type in what you want to do and the ribbon will be populated with buttons related to the task you describe. A lifesaver for supporting the migration. The results also inform you of the ribbon location for the buttons provided.

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