Re: DITCH THE RIBBON!

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Patrick Schmid wrote...
....
I wished I didn't have to write such an add-in. I too would expect user
customization to be a built-in feature.

Not cynical enough. I believe I read at some point in the Excel blog
that one of the selling points for Office 2007, at least to large
corporations, would be reduced support costs from having to assist
users who customized too much.

However, Microsoft approached this in typical Microsoft fashion. Did
they provide a group policy setting that would prevent UI customization
while providing UI customization tools for individual Office buyers or
the lucky few in large corporations allowed the priviledge of
customizing their UI? Of course not. No group policy setting to make
this secure. Instead, we'll get many people trying (and many likely
failing) to use your add-in. Fewer people may try to customize their
UI, but many of those who do will screw things up much worse than they
ever did with Tools > Customize.

Apparently Microsoft doesn't try to learn lessons from Linux
developers. The Gnome 2.0 interface introduced a menu based on an XML
scheme, but the Gnome Project failed to include a menu editor. Users
were left to edit the XML. Much fun, failure and flames ensued. This
bit of history is set to repeat when Office 2007 goes on sale.

.

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