I Hate the Excel 2007 User Interface

Excel 2007 was released in early 2007, and it presented a drastically new interface to users. Karen wrote about this interface, expressing the feelings of many that while she likes the new features in the version, she absolutely hates the user interface. She wonders if there is any way she can configure Excel 2007 so that it uses the old menu interface, as was used in Excel 2003.

The bottom line is that there is no "easy" way. In fact, the easiest way to not have to put up with the Excel 2007 interface is to stick with Excel 2003. This, of course, becomes less and less of an option as time goes on and more and more people learn the new interface. (Microsoft is showing no signs of backing down on the interface change.)

The user interface for Excel 2007 is written in the XML language. Although Microsoft allows users to customize that XML (and thereby modify the interface), they don't include tools or information on how to make the changes. There are, however, several different add-on tools you can get that allow you to make changes. A good (and free) one is located here:

http://pschmid.net/office2007/customize/

If you prefer, you can spring for a commercial one, such as Classic Menu, available here:

http://www.addintools.com

By the way, if you want to get the complete scoop as to why Microsoft made such a drastic change in the user interface, you'll want to check out the resources on this Web page:

http://pschmid.net/blog/2006/10/09/58

It will take some time to read through all the information at this site, but it is well worth it if you want to understand, exactly, why Microsoft did what they did. (It may not help mitigate the dislike, but you can certainly better understand why the change was made.)