How do I get the classic Excel menu back in Excel 2010

JP, it is inaccurate and demeaning to characterize potentially highly intelligent users as "fearing change."  That is the type of cop-out answer that a government bureaucrat - a politician - gives when they truly don't have a clue but must defend their absurd position. The reason people want the menu interface is because you can EXHAUSTIVELY (try to understand what that means) browse through all choices in the menu interface, and critically importantly, with the keyboard - entirely - which the very very very very fastest and most productive users use. You can visually browse EVERY CHOICE in the menu arrangement. In XL07+ you have to hunt and peck, unless you've memorized such as "oh, yeah, that's under 'Prepare'" or such nonsense. Don't insult users by mischaracterizing them if you don't understand the issue.

And finally .... if you say, "but you can see the shortcuts when you press the alt key" then you truly didn't really read what I said above!

Albeit responding to an old post, everything here is currently valid... Sir, it is not "resistance to change," your arroganceship. This demonstrates the utter, utter cluelessness of the MS designers and their fanboys who simply do not comprehend the issue, and in near certainty are not "power users." What's vile and pathetic is the attitude such cretins take in "authoritatively-toned" expression of their cosmically misguided misinterpretation of productive reality.

This is how users - even power users - use items that they don't have fully memorized: Let's say, you want to do something in conditional formatting. So in XL03 you go alt-O, D, and you look at what's presented, and make your choices, whether by clicking or stroking. THIS CANNOT BE DONE IN LATER VERSIONS. PERIOD. YOU HAVE TO KNOW THE FULL KEYSTROKE SEQUENCE FROM XL03. Because if you enter a partial sequence, you don't see ANYTHING to guide you what to do next. So in this case, you have to FIGURE OUT WHERE CONDITIONAL FORMATTING IS and things get deproductive from there on.

How about I want to turn off a Filter? In XL03 you go alt-D and F and you then evaluate what is your next move. But in XL07+, you can;t just go Aalt-D and F and decide. You either have to know the *entire* sequence, or else hunt down wherever Filter has been stuck. I defy any user of any skill level who does not already know to find Strikethrough in XL07 and XL10. Try it, you'll see. I know in XL03 you just click format or hit alt-O, and you can browse your way until you have fulfillment. In XL07 you WASTE TIME. I'm talking, serious, magnitudal damage to user productivity. You incompetent twats, it's not the "ribbon" or the "paradigm" that the insultingly-called "Luddites" decry. It's the loss of information in order to use the product, EXCEPT for sequences that are already memorized.

To All,

I saw a lot of blaming words in this thread and would like to give some comment.

I'm on this forum for years and did not always get the answers I was expecting but I never blamed someone because his/her answer wasn't the one I would get. So please read the code of conduct.

Know that most of us are volunteers, spending their spare time on this forum to help you. If we all would stop, where would you find the answers on your questions? Good luck.

OK, I liked the XL 2003 menu and was able to write code for menu's. And then, the company decided to upgrade. I could stop with Excel or adapt myself. As Graham said, we all fear changes but we have to give it a chance.

I think that John Ford thought, he had launched the best car forever with the Ford T. Would you still accept a Ford T as your car? Yes, it had 4 wheels, a seat and a driving wheel. The modern cars - I hope - still have the same attributes. Nothing more?

And about Graham Mayor. I was in some threads with him and I can say that Graham is a very professional and helpful MVP.

You may come to regret recommending the switch to O/LO to others, as from what I understand you cannot translate all formatting and layout features from MS Office.

I jumped from MS Office 2000 to 2010 (in late 2010) and much prefer the latter, ribbon and all.  However, in the meantime I have seen the 2003 interface and must say it is much nicer than 2000.

I can understand your frustration in being, in effect, forced to move out of 2003 but do bear in mind that in 2010 you do not just get an interface change, you also get many technical changes, not least the change to a file format that is much smaller than before, especially in Word.  File sizes are significantly lower.

All that said I still think that, as regards the text app, WordPerfect is superior to Word for a number of reasons and, if I had my way, MS would acquire WordPerfect and rebuild Word around its file format and layout philosophy, which are quite different.  And introduce the brilliant Reveal Codes feature...

(I am basing my comments on WordPerfect 2000!)