I absolutely despise the Ribbon. I still don't understand why MS went from a
VERY customizable toolbar in Word/Excel 2003 to an absolute BRICK toolbar in
2007. They went back to the stone age.
Does anyone know why they did that? I just fail to see the logic behind this.

ON TOP of changing to the brick interface, MS also removed the tool that can
save the settings! Correct me if I'm wrong about that. I just can't find
such a tool in Office 2007.

So is there ANY way to save my settings in Excel or Word 2007, including the
toolbar settings??

Thanks

Before someone replies with a link to one of those 3rd party programs that
save settings in Office 2007, here is the answer to my own question. It took
me alot of experimenting but its worth it.

1. The Quick Access Toolbars for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint are saved in
separate ".QAT" files (stands for Quick Access Toolbar), in the following
directory in Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\(User Name)\Local Settings\Application
Data\Microsoft\Office

In that folder look for: Excel.qat, PowerPoint.qat, Word.qat, etc.
So for example, if you want to transfer your Excel toolbar settings to
another computer, or after you reinstall Office 2007, just copy your custom
Excel.qat to that same folder, replacing the original.

I'm not sure about the equivalent directory in Vista, but you can just
search for the .QAT files on C: drive.

2. All other settings (options menu) are stored in the registry he

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0

You can just export the whole "12.0" registry tree to a .REG file, and store
it somewhere. When you need to use it (after reinstall or on a different
computer), just double click on that REG file to update the registry. Before
you do that, I suggest that you backup your registry just to be safe, if
something goes south.

Good luck

P.S. I hope not too many people buy 3rd party software to saves settings in
Office 2007. The whole idea is a scam. MICROSOFT SHOULD BE SUED FOR NOT
INCLUDING THE "SAVE MY SETTINGS WIZARD", WHICH WAS AVAILABLE IN PREVIOUS
VERSIONS OF OFFICE.
SETTING UP THE QUICK ACCESS TOOLBAR AFTER REINSTALL IS SIMPLY A TORTURE!