How do I get rid of ribbons and go back to old office menus?

I believe that most people here agree with you : that quote has run through my mind countless times!

In fact, I don't know if you recall Honda Accord Sedan of 1987? This care was PURRfect.  It was reliable, and so much fun to drive with enough power and punch to it. And the price too was perfect: 14k-16k full equipped. It had EVERYTHING I NEED in a car. No more, no less.  Why, oh why did Honda change the recipe? Now we have to fork out 26+k to get an Accord, which is boaty and not at all the economic fun drive I remember.

I believe there are still a few of these Accord running here and there. And despite the nostalgia and frustration I feel that you can't get that fair-priced-just-what-you-need bundle in a car nowadays, I moved on because, well, I live in this world NOW, and try make the best out of it. When I move out of the city, my new car will be electrical.

I also understand the need to ventilate and get the frustration out (you should write to MS since the people here have no pull or relation to MS: we're just users helping users).

For my part, as a former desktop publishing and office automation operations coordinator for an engineering firm and also senior DTP technician at a large law firm, I have determined that it is common to find that as much as 42% of an 15-pages expertise document are DOo costs with the new UI while this was about 32 percent with the old one or in a managed migration towards the new one. Both scenarios are extremly high.  I developed an integrated strategy that bring this ratio down to 18%, a streamlined figure that is coherent with what is being produced.

It is possible to return to the old interface, but I seriously recommend ...

Recommendation noted.  So, how do you return to the old interface?

 

Like  for many long time users and power users, Word ribbon was a total shock.  I do remember the distress feelings and the frustration of having to look everywhere for my "toolbars".

I also remember wanting to have some sort of midway interface that would allow me to build floating toolbars and such.

It only stopped being annoying when i became CURIOUS and INTERESTED of the new possibilities available.

Except for removed features, you can do all you used to do, better and most of the time, more efficiently on the new UI.

Wanting to progress by going back to the old interface is denying that the world moves on and depriving yourself from new possibilities.

Bruce Lee said something about a cup of tea: you have to empty it to fill it again. You need to start with a clean slate with Word. Frustrating and complaining will not make you learn it faster. And, you are right you have the choice to accept it or refuse it. But saying yes to change is the only way to progress. Whether good or bad.  You can work with us at finding fixes, way around, way to work and improve, or you can just quit. Your choice.

If you just open your mind a tiny bit, you might discover some pretty cool stuff about the Ribbon.

"It only stopped being annoying when i became CURIOUS and INTERESTED of the new possiblities available."

OK. How do you propose that I make the 50 or so people that I support become CURIOUS and INTERESTED in the new possibilities available?  I know that question makes a lot of people uncomfortable because the personal attacks on how the individual is just "scared" of change or "doesn't embrace" the wonderful new ribbon evaporates.  To make the argument that all of the employees of your company are the problem, not the ribbon is a much harder argument to make.

Or is my inability to control the mindset of the people I support also something that you would chalk up to opening my mind a tiny bit?  Does Bruce Lee (widely known for his computer skills) have any little nuggets of wisdom for that?

The old "if you don't like it, you must be closed-minded" is a bit condescending.  A personal attack as a response to a legitimate complaint is shallow, or arrogant, or both.

"You need to start with a clean slate with Word. Frustrating and complaining will not make you learn it faster. And, you are right you have the choice to accept it or refuse it."  At least a bit of honesty exists in admitting that Microsoft is throwing away a mass of institutional knowledge.  Sadly, I don't really have the choice to accept it or refuse it.  Microsoft licensing and the eventual lifespan of computer systems guarantee that.

"But saying yes to change is the only way to progress. Whether good or bad."

That one is painful to read.  If the logic error there isn't obvious, it is hard to find a common understanding.  The whole "change is good no matter what" mantra is fundamentally broken.  If you disagree, take an axe or meat cleaver and remove your right hand (or left one if you are left handed).  That is change.  Bad change, but it is the only way to progress.  If you did not remove your hand, you get the point.  Just because stupid is new, does not mean it is not stupid.

"You can work with us at finding fixes, way around, way to work and improve, or you can just quit. Your choice."

Well, this is kind of why I was seeking a fix.  A way to work around a new interface that gains nothing for the people I support except significant productivity losses.  But the answer you propose (don't complain, just lie back and enjoy it) really doesn't seek a fix, way around, or a way to work and improve.  It only offers accepting the point of contention which is the ribbon GUI.   And I don't know what kind of world you live in, but quitting isn't a viable option if you want to put bread on the table.  It is a reasonable suggestion, if you care only to be glib and dismissive.

If you want to pull out some stats that show how doing the same tasks with a different interface is going to make everything faster and better, be my guest.  At a minimum, at least substanitavely show how the ribbon will eventually save more time than what will be lost as people have to learn the new system. 

Heck, even explain the logic of the ribbon format with the first tier in the hierarchy at the top, the second tier at the bottom, and the third in the middle with inconsistent layouts and groupings, and how that is supposed to make things easier?  Your eyes going from the top, to the bottom of the ribbon and then back up doesn't make it easy to follow.  Or how about repeating the same icons for different functions (yes there are a few of those)?  Or creating an icon for every function, to the point where most of the icons don't give the user a clue as to what they really do?  When you read what they do, you can sort of see why they look like that, but the icon would never have any meaning that could be discerned without the text. 

Pop Quiz:  What do the following icons do: 

1 - Standard page image (rectangle with corner bent) red minus symbol on the page, blue plus sign off the page to the right

2 - Standard page image with corner turned, with a small rectangular box (horizontal) on top and bottom, with a line in the middle and an exclamation point to the right

3 - Standard page, no corner turned with an orange horizontal box at the top, a blue horizontal box at the bottom, and two one column boxes with several lines in the middle

If you can't produce stats, or at least provide some logical rationale as to how any of this is an improvement, your argument has no merit. Simple belief without any kind of substance does not trump logic or fact.

Quiz Answers:

1 - Mark Entry

2 - Update Table or Update Index, it is used quite a bit

3 - Quick Parts (bonus if you know what that is without looking it up)

Again, I AM agreeing with you on most points and critics about the new UI interface. I had to manage that with 150 engineers and staff. I am not saying your company will save money with the new interface nor that people will work faster or better. It won't.

There are only two paths available for a business already caught up in the Microsoft system: put out money to follow or put out money to change boat.

Both cases are costly. I am not saying its ok. I'm saying that it is our jobs to deal with that dementia. And find solutions that will not cause the companies we work for to sink under the terrible human and technological strain Microsoft latest marketing coup has put on all the businesses that function on their technologies.

So your job is to find solutions. And you came here and ask about one solution you have envisioned.

Putting the old UI style up.

What we are telling you is that yes, such thing exists but it is not viable. Because Word 2010 is not just about a UI, the whole software has evolved and it is now imperative that people use the proper methods and techniques and - sit down or grasp for your life - in the proper SEQUENCE. Otherwise, you will have a lot more to deal with than lost in the maze users: tons of corrupted documents and unstable templates.

See, Word team did the 2010 interface with an assumption that corporations will produce their templates and teach people how to use them.

In fact, very few companies have done that. Companies assume that  people can use word-processing software and do what they have to do with it. But if you have never been though how to drive stick shift correctly in the first place if we sit you in a race car, chances are you are going to brake the gear box.

See 2010 is both a development facility and a front-end transportation device.  You have all the tools and parts and pieces you need to make a car, or a jet for that matter, and some cute assemblages out of the box.  When you go in that garage, what you want to do is take a car and drive where to your destination.  If you are going to some Alaskan ice covered road, chances are you will want to do something with your tires.  Spikes, chains, the choice is considerable and the method to get there as well.

Our job is to preset the various vehicles our people will need, train them how to use them properly, how to do common fixes and to NOT TOUCH the assembly line!

Again, we did not really choose to purchase a Boing assembling facility but that's what we got.

Your best strategy is to hire the services (employee or consultant) of a good DOoc coordinator and work with him/her to achieve the following:

Make real templates (not these document samples most people use) served either through "my templates" on each user station, or a Sharepoint location whatever but not on public server file folder!

Train employees to use templates and not mess with the ribbon Hazardous features (bullets, numbering among others)

You can even have the DOoc  design an exportable UI set up that will be more convenient for your people, or teach your people how to easily modify the QAT or the ribbon to put the commands they want where they want it (e.g. quick parts and construction blocks).

Trust me, most people think they know how to use Word, but they don't. And when they get to 2010, that is the trial proof! And most resources and schools teach people about Word, not about making Word work for us.

The good news is that once they are trained to use 2010 properly, they will work efficiently and be adaptable to whatever new tile (or evolution! ;) Ms or others see fit.

I quit my job as an employee because I find that I do a much more useful job as a consultant helping companies transition to this new way of working.

The conclusion:

Training and templates.