The Curse of the Ribbon Menu

Microsoft's gone too far. Ribbon menus in Outlook and Paint. Say it ain't so, Ozzie.

Everyone wants to take their shot at what's wrong with Microsoft these days so here's mine. Ribbon menus. I've long detested Microsoft's ribbon menu user interface. The biggest issue is what you once knew how to do, you now have to find again (and again). The net gain being a big net loss in productivity. How many of us have spent 2, 3, 5 or even more minutes trying to find some menu item that seems hidden on one of the ribbon tabs. I'm not trying to be a stick in the mud about it, I generally like trying new ideas but ribbon menus and me just don't seem to get along. To add insult to injury, enter Outlook 2010 and Windows 7 Paint.

Now in Office 2010, the application I probably spend 80-90% of my general computer usage time in, Outlook, has ribbon menus. Ribbon menus. These things are like Tribbles.

Microsoft, didn't we talk about this time and time again? Haven't you heard the cries of pain and productivity suffering as ribbon menus painfully made us relearn Word, PowerPoint and Excel. Aren't you listening? To quote Star Trek's James T. Kirk to Kahn, "like a poor marksman, you keep missing the target."

But now Microsoft, you've hit us below the belt, given us a shot to our core by putting ribbon menus on Outlook. And to put ribbon menus on Windows Paint, now that's like being a bully to little software programs not big enough to stand up for themselves.

Ribbon menus. Oh the humanity.

Like this? Here are some of Mitchell's recent posts.

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Recent Podcasts:

• Mike Schutz, Microsoft. Essential Steps For Securing Hyper-V
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Mitchell's book recommendations:

• Beginning SharePoint 2007 Administration: Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007
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