Come on over to the Mac side! The door is wide open. But MS Office on the Mac also uses the Ribbon so no escaping in that app. And the Mac’s Finder can be challenging too, although not as much as the Ribbon would be as a file manager.

I don’t design user interfaces, I use them. And that gives me a great deal of experience with them. It also gives me some authority on what works and what doesn’t. I’ve been using Microsoft Office and Windows for well over 20 years, after all.

Microsoft has always had the problem of allowing programmers and engineers to make design and interface decisions. There’s hardly a recognition that normal people do not think like programmers, and thus will not find a workflow built for their needs as useful as the programmers do.

Granted, the Ribbon was an attempt to correct this issue and make using Office easier for some people, but they made the tragic mistake of then making it hard for people who don’t think like complete novices to then navigate around this pixel-stealing monstrosity.

If they gave users a way to turn off the Ribbon it wouldn’t be such a big deal. Switching back to the old menu system would have quieted the anger right off. But no, Microsoft must move forward in UI design, no matter how stupid! (such as the new staging area for saving files in Office 2010. Ugh.)

Now, as to your last paragraph: I recognize that there are other problems in the world, but you do realize that you’re on a site that talks about laptops and laptop software and operating systems, right? You didn’t accidentally wander over here from Change.org, did you?

Also, your suggestion that everyone should just step to a larger monitor is elitist with a heavy dose of classism. It also ignores the fact that millions and millions of users are currently using 10 – 12 inch monitors on their laptops and, in order to stay mobile, do not want to lug around something bigger. Heck, with a 1366 x 768 resolution even a bigger screen isn’t going to alleviate the problem.

Unless you plan to buy a bigger monitor/new laptop for everyone? If so, then please leave your contact info in a response. After all, according to you, if you’re not willing to solve a problem all by yourself, it’s not worth writing about.

I’ll be waiting for your address.

There are real problems in the world. A toolbar that takes up a sixty-fourth of the screen is not one of them. Get a new monitor and step up to the modren world and quit whinging like a schoolgirl