Z4MC

I guess that my OP was that I actually LIKE the new Ribbon bar in 2007 - BIGGER icons (in most cases with so many 20-24" monitors being sold now) ARE better its just that it looks like they are either shotgun scattered around and to the other poster who said that "SAVE,SAVE AS, PRINT or EMAIL may only be important to me..." I challenge ANYONE here the next time they open an office doc if they arent doing one of those 4 tasks (maybe a fifth- dumping it and starting over) and these should not be in the "logo" icon that makes you drag down and over- BIG ONE CLICK ICONS on the MAIN tab is where these should go. Period. Thanks to all for the office 2003 menu bar- but I will stay with 2007 unitl one of you smart guys makes a new Office 2007 add-in that allows the USER to PICK AND CHOOSE their BIG icons and "roll your own" icon bar- NOT the mini bar that comes with the app. Imagine making my own Menu bar with the bdtter larger icons for the $3000 I have spent upgrading my business to 2007. Am NOT an Apple zealot (love the hardware- hate their font smoothing algorithm) but using larger icons all the time is one true usability productivity gain. Its just a fact.

Its not that I havent gotten "used" to it I was used to it after 1 day. And I have an extensive mini bar that I have customized but my point is that MS has agreed with Apple that BIG ICONS ARE EASIER TO USE than smaller ones- on a phone, on an PC in the office , in a touchscreen on a car it doesnt matter- bigger is easier to use. I own a company- we write software for the food processingindustry- bigger icons on scanners are better- bigger icons in our managmenet console are better- but ESPECIALLY in an app like MS Office - THE app of apps. WHY did they leave the MOST important ones on a "mini" bar? Sorry about the rant thought someone had an answer to make the print, save and email icons larger

In this my first post as a heavy buyer and user of Miscrosoft software I have to say that Office 2007 is not a total disaster but it is inthe catoegory of "what were they thinking". Fist of all I like the big icon concept- yes Apple was there first of course but no problem better late than never- and yes I know you can make a small ribbon bar and put anything that you want in it- but it is an afterthought - the large icon ribbons is the major change and focus fof the new UI. Microsoft has advertised and played up the large icon UI so they pbviously think it is worthwhile. And I wont nitpick that Outlook, without its "older" ribbon bar and dismal slowness (Mark Cuban says memry hole I am not so sure about that but...) looks like the team that programmed it missed the OFFICE 2007 team meetings. Anyway... But what does EVERYONE do everytime they open a document in Office? They SAVE it , they PRINT it or they EMAIL it. Is it just me or shouldnt these 3 BIG icons be prominent in the MAIN ribbon bar instead of that silly office circle in the upper left and then dragging down then across just to print. Really this is just stupid with all the large icons. And then in word I have 5 large icons to change styles- MOST business users (maybe 90%) NEVER change a style why isnt that space reserved for the three MOST important icons that EVERYONE uses? Am I missing something here? Shuldnt I be able to one click on a LARGE easy to use Icon? If larger icons arent easeir to use them Apple wouldnt have done them in the first place and Microsoft wouldnt have copied them. And while I am at it why not a "roll your own" Ribbon where I can make 10-15 of the most used LARGE icons that I USE Now THAT would be innovation- not having to use the app like some focus groups of desingers at MS THINK how i would/should use the app. Would be cool to click a "MINE" on the tool bar and my customized ribbon of large icons is right there for me. Now THAT would be worth my $300 they want for office. And yes maybe editing some XML of VB script may make this happen but for the 99% of us that just want o use the app and not recreate anthing like that- MS should have done this from the start. I am putting my asbestos on now