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#1
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon
interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#2
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Seems like an awful lot of work, Josh. I'd be tempted to smack the users
until they came to their senses.<g If you haven't done a task pane before (like me) you'd get more out of the experience than doing a userform though. And it would dock nicely in the Excel app window. -- Jim "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... |I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon | interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel | based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. | | So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from | Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that | is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside | below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. | | I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any | advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? | Other? | | TIA, | | josh | | |
#3
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Thanks Jim.
I'm forwarding your message to my users! josh "Jim Rech" wrote in message ... Seems like an awful lot of work, Josh. I'd be tempted to smack the users until they came to their senses.<g If you haven't done a task pane before (like me) you'd get more out of the experience than doing a userform though. And it would dock nicely in the Excel app window. -- Jim "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... |I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon | interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel | based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. | | So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from | Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that | is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside | below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. | | I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any | advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? | Other? | | TIA, | | josh | | |
#4
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant?
To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#5
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Sadly I'm not kidding and I'm not sure what kind of plant this would be ...
I'm off evaluating the 8 or 10 3rd party ribbon controls to see how much work this would be. I already mocked up a screen shot using SnagIt showing how our custom Excel 2007 ribbon tab appears in Excel 2003 below the standard Excel 2003 menu and toolbars. I thought the reality of seeing it would turn them off but quite the reverse! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant? To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#6
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.programming
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Of the thousands of posts I've read about Excel's ribbon, this is the first
time I've ever seen someone wanting to retrofit the ribbon to a version of Excel that had the familiar menu and toolbar system. It is inconceivable to most who have tried Office 2007 that anyone would want to intentionally inflict the ribbon onto users of an earlier version. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... Sadly I'm not kidding and I'm not sure what kind of plant this would be ... I'm off evaluating the 8 or 10 3rd party ribbon controls to see how much work this would be. I already mocked up a screen shot using SnagIt showing how our custom Excel 2007 ribbon tab appears in Excel 2003 below the standard Excel 2003 menu and toolbars. I thought the reality of seeing it would turn them off but quite the reverse! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant? To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#7
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Please stop, there's only so much laughing one person can do. This is
one of the best threads I've read in a long time. --JP On Apr 16, 5:53*pm, "Jon Peltier" wrote: Of the thousands of posts I've read about Excel's ribbon, this is the first time I've ever seen someone wanting to retrofit the ribbon to a version of Excel that had the familiar menu and toolbar system. It is inconceivable to most who have tried Office 2007 that anyone would want to intentionally inflict the ribbon onto users of an earlier version. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. -http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in l... |
#8
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
I'm always happy to be breaking new ground!
But seriously, without trying to start a religious war, I now prefer to use my Excel add-in based application under Excel 2007 (with ribbon) than under Excel 97- 2003 (with menu and toolbars). The ribbon has certain very nice qualities for our application such as the: immediacy of live preview accessibility of functions that comes from having essentially a non-modal control panel always present visibility of the applications functionality With regard to Excel's built-in ribbon tabs, they're growing on me. As long as I don't find myself having to switch between tabs to often (which admittedly can happen a lot more than I like) I'm OK with what MS has done. I can still get around faster when using older versions of Excel but I suspect this will change over time. Anyway we'll see what happens with this project! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... Of the thousands of posts I've read about Excel's ribbon, this is the first time I've ever seen someone wanting to retrofit the ribbon to a version of Excel that had the familiar menu and toolbar system. It is inconceivable to most who have tried Office 2007 that anyone would want to intentionally inflict the ribbon onto users of an earlier version. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... Sadly I'm not kidding and I'm not sure what kind of plant this would be ... I'm off evaluating the 8 or 10 3rd party ribbon controls to see how much work this would be. I already mocked up a screen shot using SnagIt showing how our custom Excel 2007 ribbon tab appears in Excel 2003 below the standard Excel 2003 menu and toolbars. I thought the reality of seeing it would turn them off but quite the reverse! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant? To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#9
Posted to microsoft.public.excel.programming
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
Excel 2007 is a much less efficient work environment for me.
I find that the tab I need is almost always hidden. My old customized commandbars take up no more space than the ribbon, but display as many controls as any three or four tabs do now. So "visibility of the applications functionality" is actually reduced for a seasoned user. I can't move a toolbar near where I'm working in 2007, there are no tearaway formatting palettes, the modeless dialogs mean that undo and repeat last action only remember one single thing I formatted in the dialog, not everything I did during my entire visit to the dialog. The newer dialogs violate any number of usability guidelines. For example, if I want to change an axis scale parameter in Excel 2003, I can click directly in the box and change it, and Auto is automatically unchecked for me, if it wasn't already unchecked, or I can uncheck the Auto box and the input box's contents are selected, ready to edit. In Excel 2007 I have to first check the Fixed box, then select the contents of the input box, then enter a value. Many more clicks and much more mouse movement around the screen. It looks pretty, sure, but it's really just another example of the elevation of form over function. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I'm always happy to be breaking new ground! But seriously, without trying to start a religious war, I now prefer to use my Excel add-in based application under Excel 2007 (with ribbon) than under Excel 97- 2003 (with menu and toolbars). The ribbon has certain very nice qualities for our application such as the: immediacy of live preview accessibility of functions that comes from having essentially a non-modal control panel always present visibility of the applications functionality With regard to Excel's built-in ribbon tabs, they're growing on me. As long as I don't find myself having to switch between tabs to often (which admittedly can happen a lot more than I like) I'm OK with what MS has done. I can still get around faster when using older versions of Excel but I suspect this will change over time. Anyway we'll see what happens with this project! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... Of the thousands of posts I've read about Excel's ribbon, this is the first time I've ever seen someone wanting to retrofit the ribbon to a version of Excel that had the familiar menu and toolbar system. It is inconceivable to most who have tried Office 2007 that anyone would want to intentionally inflict the ribbon onto users of an earlier version. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... Sadly I'm not kidding and I'm not sure what kind of plant this would be ... I'm off evaluating the 8 or 10 3rd party ribbon controls to see how much work this would be. I already mocked up a screen shot using SnagIt showing how our custom Excel 2007 ribbon tab appears in Excel 2003 below the standard Excel 2003 menu and toolbars. I thought the reality of seeing it would turn them off but quite the reverse! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant? To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
#10
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Creating a Ribbon in XL2003?
These are all really good, valid points Jon!
The Excel 2003 menu/toolbar interface was the result of how many years (15? 20?) of refinements. I hope and presume the current ribbon will serve as a baseline for another couple of decades of refinement which will hopefully address your, mine and other users criticisms. josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... Excel 2007 is a much less efficient work environment for me. I find that the tab I need is almost always hidden. My old customized commandbars take up no more space than the ribbon, but display as many controls as any three or four tabs do now. So "visibility of the applications functionality" is actually reduced for a seasoned user. I can't move a toolbar near where I'm working in 2007, there are no tearaway formatting palettes, the modeless dialogs mean that undo and repeat last action only remember one single thing I formatted in the dialog, not everything I did during my entire visit to the dialog. The newer dialogs violate any number of usability guidelines. For example, if I want to change an axis scale parameter in Excel 2003, I can click directly in the box and change it, and Auto is automatically unchecked for me, if it wasn't already unchecked, or I can uncheck the Auto box and the input box's contents are selected, ready to edit. In Excel 2007 I have to first check the Fixed box, then select the contents of the input box, then enter a value. Many more clicks and much more mouse movement around the screen. It looks pretty, sure, but it's really just another example of the elevation of form over function. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I'm always happy to be breaking new ground! But seriously, without trying to start a religious war, I now prefer to use my Excel add-in based application under Excel 2007 (with ribbon) than under Excel 97- 2003 (with menu and toolbars). The ribbon has certain very nice qualities for our application such as the: immediacy of live preview accessibility of functions that comes from having essentially a non-modal control panel always present visibility of the applications functionality With regard to Excel's built-in ribbon tabs, they're growing on me. As long as I don't find myself having to switch between tabs to often (which admittedly can happen a lot more than I like) I'm OK with what MS has done. I can still get around faster when using older versions of Excel but I suspect this will change over time. Anyway we'll see what happens with this project! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... Of the thousands of posts I've read about Excel's ribbon, this is the first time I've ever seen someone wanting to retrofit the ribbon to a version of Excel that had the familiar menu and toolbar system. It is inconceivable to most who have tried Office 2007 that anyone would want to intentionally inflict the ribbon onto users of an earlier version. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... Sadly I'm not kidding and I'm not sure what kind of plant this would be ... I'm off evaluating the 8 or 10 3rd party ribbon controls to see how much work this would be. I already mocked up a screen shot using SnagIt showing how our custom Excel 2007 ribbon tab appears in Excel 2003 below the standard Excel 2003 menu and toolbars. I thought the reality of seeing it would turn them off but quite the reverse! josh "Jon Peltier" wrote in message ... You're kidding, right? Or is this a plant? To mimic the productivity gains of the ribbon, you could unplug users' the keyboard and mouse. - Jon ------- Jon Peltier, Microsoft Excel MVP Tutorials and Custom Solutions Peltier Technical Services, Inc. - http://PeltierTech.com _______ "Josh Sale" <jsale@tril dot cod wrote in message ... I have some users who are totally enamored with the new XL 2007 ribbon interface (doesn't matter why ... they just do) and they now want my Excel based application to use a ribbon even when running under XL 2003. So I'm thinking of picking up a 3rd party ribbon control (say from Infragistics) and hosting it in either a taskpane or a non-modal dialog that is kind of docked below the XL 2003 toolbars. So this "ribbon" would reside below the XL2003 menu, toolbars, etc. I'm just curious if anybody has been down this path already? If so any advice? Taskpane vs non-modal dialog? Choice of 3rd party ribbon control? Other? TIA, josh |
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