Office 2007 Ribbon Bar

As we rolled out Office 2007 in my office, one of the things that came up quite a bit was the new Rib­bon bar.  Per­so­nally, I think the grou­pings of the options are well thought out and very intui­tive.  But, even with all the gui­des in the world, some users wan­ted the clas­sic tool­bar back.

Always on the hunt to make my users happy, I keep loo­king for little tools that they can use.  I came across this one the other day.

It is called Rib­bon­Cus­to­mi­zer and can be found here.  There are two ver­sions, the free and pro­fes­sio­nal ver­sion.  Yes the free ver­sion is very wate­red down, but for the stan­dard user I think it will work fine.   For 30 days you do get a trial of the full ver­sion, but I am not sure if it is worth the $30 to purchase it. Per­so­nally, I would get used to the new inter­face for that price.

The ins­ta­lla­tion seems very straight for­ward and easy to follow.  Please note that if you have Vista and mul­ti­ple users on that com­pu­ter you will have to ins­tall it for each user.  That would be nice in some fami­lies where one per­son likes the bar and the other doesn’t.

After the ins­ta­lla­tion you will notice a new option in the rib­bon bar labe­led Clas­si­cUI.  If you select that tab, the old tool­bar back.

If you know of another option, please don’t hesi­tate to let me know.