Want the old Office ‘Classic Menus’ back in Office 2007?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 11 April 2007 22:31

Your IT - Entertainment

The release continues that: “Following the requests from many users, Addintools has introduced Classic Menu for Office 2007 v.2.08, an innovative application that will bring back the classic look to new Microsoft Office, allowing users to work in their usual manner without changing their habits. It lets users retrieve and show the main menu bar, standard toolbar, and formatting toolbar that are hidden or moved away from the direct view. The program works with Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. All new Office 2007 features remain accessible in the classic menu and toolbars”.

Next they say that: “Classic Menu for Office 2007 also lets users add the menus and toolbars to Quick Access Toolbar, so that it becomes possible to minimize the Ribbon and finish all operations without having to open it again. The program has been optimized for complete compatibility with Microsoft Office 2007 and supports all major languages, including English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, Arabic, Korean, and Chinese”.

They conclude by saying that: “The new Office look doesn't sit well with you? Download Classic Menu from Addintools!”

So, while I’m not normally in the habit of re-printing press releases, this is a very intriguing piece of software that fills the need some people have of restoring the classic menus to Microsoft’s latest Office 2007.

For some people, this will be fantastic news. For others, it’s yet another reason to try Open Office, Google Apps, ThinkFree Office, Zoho Office or some other Office clone or compatible software.

Either way, if this software really becomes popular with users, it’ll certainly send a message to Microsoft, who may be forced to release something like this themselves.

As for me, I’ve quickly gotten used to the Office 2007 ribbon, so it’s kinda weird to see the old menus in action. Still, I’m going to leave it there for a while and see what it’s like using it, and if I come across any Office 2007 users who aren’t happy with the ribbon or just wish they could have the old menus back, I’ll certainly be telling them about this software.