It is not just the ribbon, it is the ribbon paradigm: more empty space, less use of color, quick access to some of the most obvious functions, and more clicks to get to everythng, no real way to customize,....

As a windows support person, I am an early adopter. Been using the Ribbon since the beginning.

Some MS managers with enough power made sure that at least the BUTTON bar was not extingushed. Resistance in Redmond??

I use excel (still a crap program compared to Quattro pro) and word and outlook. The ribbon is not consistant, lacks many useful functions, is big and ugly.

Yet, The ribbon is great for new users. And as the saying goes, "If you can't find it, you prolly don't need it." True for the ignorant and the uninformed.

Menus and button bars are far more intelligent, and useful.

My current metaphor:
I sit at a clean desk
I look down to locate the proper drawer
   I open the drawer, withdraw a piece of paper and place it on the desktop
I look down to locate the proper drawer
   I open a different drawer and remove a pencil
   I mark the paper
   I lay the pencil on the desk
I look down to locate the proper drawer
   I open another drawer to withdraw a pen
   The first drawer closes and the pencil disappears!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
   I then use the pen and lay it upon the desktop
I look down to locate the proper drawer
   I open the drawer to retrieve the pencil
   The pen drawer closes and the pen disappears

With menus and buttons the drawers close but the tools are not removed from sight. And I spend less time locating the proper drawer (fewer clicks).

The tabbed ribbon requires more clicks than menus and button bars because it does not return to its original settings each time as does a menu. And if it did it would require more clicks to again find the desired function.

Example: change to different window
menus: click window, click document
ribbon: click view, click window, click document
And now click another ribbon tab to proceed.

Extra clicks everwhere. Vista and Seven are the same.

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The rule in design is to make sure that which is done/needed most often is most easily/quickly accessible.

Having to look at the keyboard to press an F key to do something that I used to do without looking (eg: S key) was a stupid change.

Moving the keymap such that some of the least often used stuff is now the most easily accessible was stupid.

Yea the smart tool is supposed to help with all that. But it requires more use with the mouse hand, and consequently the non-mouse hand is less useful, thereby reducing effectiveness and efficiency.

"A committee is a life form with six or more legs, and no brain." Heinlein

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The windows search function was NOT improved by moving from a enter box with filters to the SQL like commands now needed to sometimes find what is being searched for.

Lots of threads at MS forums about how search terms are not found. I had one last week: the file was in an indexed location, and displayed in windows explorer, I typed "sync" which was part of the file name. After waiting for search to look in all the subfolders (how do I stop this???) the file was not found. Stupid at best.  I more often use PowerDesk.

The advanced search function interface in Outlook is more reasonable.

============
Another stupidity: the windows explorer issues, including the dropping folder tree. Still not fixed after 2 years.

And so on

J

What I really hate about the search function, is how it goes through outlook first.

So I search for a folder I can't find, and then have to scroll though thousands of emails.

I'm sure there's a way not to do this (I would hope) but it's sure not obivous

Had to edit my post...

What I meant was I hate the ribbon in MS products.
I LIKE the ribbon in X1.

Sorry for the confusion.

Once again, X1 Control Bar != Ribbon. I'm unsure which part of that confuses some people.
 
EDIT: Sorry, not everyone is familiar with "!=". It means "not equal to". 

SilkTone


Once again, X1 Control Bar != Ribbon. I'm unsure which part of that confuses some people.

I couldn't agree more. I wish they were equal then I could move the ribbon to the bottom of the screen in Office or float it.......

It annoys me stuck at the top of the screen.

Outlook=the Devil

UnderTow

Kroneborge


What I really hate about the search function, is how it goes through outlook first.

So I search for a folder I can't find, and then have to scroll though thousands of emails.

I'm sure there's a way not to do this (I would hope) but it's sure not obivous

Easy solution: Remove Outlook.

I hate Outlook with a passion for the simple reason that it's default "quote below message" behaviour messed up email communication forever. Whomever is responsible for that should be shot!

Anyway, I have recently started using Ultra File Search. It is free, more flexible than Explorer's search and much faster!

UnderTow

Yes, but it already has a huge amount of emails in it. 

Silk I am not opposed to what you said before. What you have with this post I ask about is unclear. It seems you are saying that the CB is a ribbon.

That is <= not !=.

Edit but thanks Steve for pointing that out.

John


Silk I am not opposed to what you said before. What you have with this post I ask about is unclear. It seems you are saying that the CB is a ribbon.

No that is not what I said or implied at all. I'm stating very clearly that there is absolutely nothing in X1's CB that is even remotely relatable to a ribbon control. For the OP's rant to work, he has to equate the CB with the ribbon (plus there seems to be some unresolved MS related issues too, and some strange disdain for anything .Net related).

Susan G

John


That is <= not !=.

"!=" means "not equal", "<=" means "less than or equal to".

-Susan

Not to me Susan /= is what I think you mean. Anyway if it is just a misunderstanding of mine then all is well.

I have never seen an exclamation used that way. So I thought it was a typo.

The bottom line is we all agree that the CB is not, repeat, not a ribbon.

Well it doesn't work as a ribbon. Is that good enough for why it is not a ribbon?

 
Shirley  is the symbol for 'is not equal to'
 
I can remember that from studying mathematics, even though I'm nearly half as old as John

SilkTone


Yes in math but not in programming. The symbol you mention is not easily accessible on a keyboard, hence why it probably isn't used in programming.

 
Agreed, so why not just type "doesn't equal" instead - it doesn't take that much longer