In Office 2007 Microsoft introduced their ribbon toolbar. This completely changed how core fucntionality in Microsoft Office was accessed.
Having used Microsoft Word since version 1, I found my whole world tipped upside down when 2007 was installed on my machine. I'm hope I am not the only one. No longer could I click on various menus to access features I'd been using for 15 years. Suddenly my toolbar was populated with icons, that changed everytime I clicked on something.
My core productivity toolset had changed and after special office and ribbon training, 2 years of using the product, and many robust discussions with colleagues, my productivity has still not increased from the depths it has dropped to.
To add to my despair, the soon to be released Outlook 2010 has also been dressed in the same clothes.
Yes, those users who have not had Office embedded in them over the last 20 years of their professional career will no doubt find their productivity increases as Microsoft tries to make our lives easier, but you cannot teach this old dog new tricks. Just call it a classic menu and I'll be happy.
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If you have any choice about which software is installed on your machine, and unless you must have some functionality of MS Word, you have at least two alternatives to the ribbon bar:
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* Pros: Familiar, efficient, cheap (since you already have the software)
* Cons: Old bugs won't get fixed, nor will any security vulnerabilities that may be found (MS would rather you bought more software from them)
2) Switch to an open-source alternative office suite. My personal favourite is OpenOffice.org (which is also the web address you need to go to to download it!). OpenOffice.org has all features accessible through menus and static tool bars, and not a ribbon bar. Best of all you can change where a feature appears on the menu or toolbar and it will stay where you have put it.
* Pros: Efficient, flexible, free, more familiar than a ribbon bar.
* Cons: Not as familiar as the older MS Office suite