http://live.pirillo.com/ – There have been a ton of versions of Microsoft Office, and over the years the menu system has become cluttered and convoluted. For that reason, Microsoft introduced the Ribbon Bar which replaced the old menu system.

Most of the applications in Microsoft Office have had their menus replaced with the Ribbon Bar. The idea behind the ribbon bar is that you don’t have to worry about trying to find the features you’re looking for: you only open up a tab and your available options are shown to you.

At first, the Ribbon Bar is really frustrating to people used to the old menu system, but once you get used to it, it’s actually a good user experience: instead of getting features buried in a traditional menu system they’re shown to you when you want to, and can, use them.

IMDuffy15 wants to know if there’s a free program to turn the ribbon bar off in Office 2007. We know of a shareware program (just search Google, you’ll find it), but no free program. But, keep in mind that the ribbon bar is the way Microsoft is going to go forward with the ribbon system.

We say give the ribbon bar a shot. What do you think?

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Office 2007 Ribbon vs Menu