Every time I need to use some obscure function that I knew exactly how to do before, I now have to divert myself for 10 minutes or more of research to figure it out. And even when I’ve learned the new way, I don’t find it to be any better or easier to use than it wsa before. I see no advantage to the new way.

As other’s have mentioned, it totally annoys me that I have to waste so much of my screen space with icons that I never or rarely use.

I cannot even begin to relate to people who say this new interface is a good idea. I’ve been a Windows user since the beginning and I usually like Microsoft products. But when I open an Office 2010 tool, it’s almost always a negative experience for me.

As a “Fluent User” I found the Ribbon a distraction that took up precious real estate. I use a Netbook and the screen space is at a premium. I was such an avid MS Office fan until 2007. Now I exclusively use Open Office.org for all of my office needs I can keep my menus, change my menus, change my icon themes. Best of all it is free. Microsoft lost me (a fluent user) as a customer but probably gained more users who aren’t as fluent who think the whiz-bang-handholding-lead you by the nose ribbon bar is the greatest thing since sliced white……

1) Ribbon has more clicks to get to function
The ribbon is less efficient in terms of button clicks to get a function done, even if you get used to it and know what you are going to do. If you pay attention, you will find that to do the same task with a ribbon menu takes on the average an extra click, compared to the toolbar/menu system. It comes from having to transfer between the high screen real estate ribbons, rather than having a set of small selective toolbars.

2) Ribbon takes up more screen real estate compared to toolbar system.
You have lost screen real estate to the toolbar. You need to scroll around your data a tad more to make up for the ribbon taking up more screen real estate. In the old toolbar system, every toolbar could be cusomized to just what you used. You could reduce the toolbars to take up low screen real estate and have them very selective in content. In the Ribbon, you have one toolbar to customize, but it does not reduce the screen real estate taken up by the ribbon.

I’m all for change so long as an appropriate upgrade is provided. I sure hope Micorosft is working on their own 3rd party add-on to fix this oversight.

I have a VM with O2k7 in it just because work requires that I send in the new file format. I really hope that when we (my company) moves from Lotus to Outlook that I can use “menus”. If not then I’ll be installing Evolution to replace my Outlook client.

There is one thing I found very beneficial about the MS Ribbon bar. It put commands all over the screen that most of my colleagues were too LAZY to go and find/read up on/press F1 for in 2003. They now think that all of the features they are “finding” are NEW….so usability is better for the lame users. We power users….might just have been lost to MS.