Office 2003 interface in Office 2007

[Isaac1]

The Ribbon interface introduced by Microsoft in Office 2007 and soon exported in Windows 7 (the one that uses a large toolbar divided into various forms, both for instance) will not please everyone, we have found in different circumstances.

That is why we are convinced that the free UbitMenu will be the reason of happiness of many people - for one reason or another - for the latest edition of Office led by Steve "curious" Ballmer, but still not capacitate the fact of having to abandon the classic toolbars.

Simply download the software from the official website (click on the entry for the exe or zip version), follow the short installation wizard and start any instrument of Office 2007 (Word, Excel or PowerPoint, to be precise) to find the happy surprise: a tab called "Menu" in the Ribbon.

This menu, I miss to say, hide just the ultra-classic toolbar suite for the office "made in Redmond" we have come to know for over ten years. With no negative impacts on the performance of programs and menus including File, Edit, View, and so on.

Who want to try it?

[Gusgr8]

UBitMenu does not hide the ribbon interface, but adds the classic menu as a new ribbon. By-and-by you will realize that many functions are indeed easier to handle using Office 2007 ribbons. Microsoft has done a good job there.

[Jimmy24]

If you have spent agonizing minutes trying to find features in Word, Excel or PowerPoint ribbons that would have been at your finger tips in Office 2003 you will soon appreciate UBitMenu, especially when you have to finish an important document under time pressure.

[Itronix]

Here are more notes on this program:

• How it works: once installed, UbitMenu will add a tab entitled "Menu" to the Office 2007 ribbons; clicking on this will display the emulated Office 2003 interface. You can switch back and forth to any of the Office 2007 tabs at any time if you need to.
  
  
• Scope: emulates the classic menu of the following Office 2003 applications: Excel, Word and PowerPoint. Also emulates Excel 2003 keyboard shortcuts and toolbars.
  
  
• Omitted functions: UbitMenu, if I understand correctly, brings back some functions which are omitted in Office 2007 but not all (in some instances the functionality is gone completely).
  
  
• Language: although the developer’s site is in German, there is an English language version available (as well as a handful of other languages).
  
  
• Uninstallation: uninstall from the add/remove programs Control Panel just as you would any other program.

[SpearMan]

I downloaded this program and used it. Nice one . It does not hide the ribbon interface, but adds the classic menu as a new toolbar so you get to enjoy the benefit of both worlds. But because of that extra toolbar you loose another half a centimeter of screen space, but that shouldn’t be a problem for larger monitors.

[ChrisUlrich]

This program does a terrific job at approximating the MS Office 2003 interface. If you need to use Office 2007 but miss the interface of old Office this program is exactly what you’re looking for.