Is that software developers, and not just at Microsoft, keep taking up more and more of the vertical screen real estate. With widescreen monitors becoming the default purchase option with any new computer setup, why are more developers not moving towards toolbars along the left and right edge of the screen where I have more than enough free space for it to not bother me.

On the functionality part of it...I just don't get it. Why would you have all the stuff under the right click menu the default commands at the top of the screen? That actually looks like something that I would setup and would be useful to a person with disabilities that restricts the use of a mouse and keyboard at the same time. I guess as long as I can customize to actually be useful to me, I'll do what I do every time Microsoft makes this type of change...live with it.

I'm amazed at the number of people who haven't figured out they can minimize the Ribbon. Right-click it and select "Shrink the Ribbon". It collapses down to the size of a regular tool bar.

@djgaspar

Your findings about how new users having less difficulty with the Ribbon while existing users (those who worked with a pre-ribbon version of office) are not as happy with the ribbon is very common and I say that based on a larger number of articles and positing???s I've read and replied to over the past 2 years. Sadly Microsoft has chosen the ???Either change with the times or get left behind??? mindset regarding the large number of unhappy anti-ribbon users out there.

While Microsoft has finally acknowledged that there is a measurable number of users who don???t like the ribbon they still refuse to admit just how big that group is and that many don???t simply dislike the ribbon but hate it. They spin at as being a few users who are having difficulty with changing to the more efficient and more effective ribbon interface. They also have yet to intelligently address the question of why is the Ribbon required and not optional? The excuse that supporting 2 different interfaces is weak since best practices in programming states you should not tightly couple your system. The interface (what the users sees) should not be tightly coupled with the behind the scenes code. For example if a user wants to perform a COPY operation then the place within the Office application window that you click to perform a COPY operation should be independent form the actual code behind the application that performs the copy operation. This approach is considered a ???Best Practices??? because it separates the interface (what the users sees and uses) from the business logic or code behind the scenes. If the Office application interfaces were designed this way then it would not matter if the user chose to use a Ribbon interface or the classic Menu & Buttons.

I doubt Microsoft will ever own up to the mistake that they made when forcing the Ribbon down their users throats and refusing to make changes even after it was clear that more than a few users were unhappy with the Ribbon. What???s really odd about this move on their part is how counter logical it is. In a retail world you don???t typically respond to your customer base in this way when a change you make is so negatively received. In fact if this were any other industry (not software) I doubt the change would still remain uncorrected. Just look at what happened with the NEW COKE fiasco that Coca-Cola faced. It didn???t take long for them to correct their mistake by initially offering the CLASSIC COKE in addition to the NEW COKE and then later by dropping the NEW COKE all together.

But really it doesn???t matter they will push on us what they believe we want not what we really want. They had their chance to give us a classic option in Office 7 but they are too deep in their commitment to ribbons. If Bill Gate was still in real charge we would have a classic option.

MS is relentless to their ribbons because they laid a platform they cant get out of with face
For the first time since the late 80s I will be spending my hard earnd money on a MAC.