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Home > Exploring Excel > Survey Results:Excel 2007's Ribbon Hurts
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According to our survey of users about Excel's Ribbon, intermediate and advanced users have strong opinions about Excel 2007's new Ribbon interface.
They don't like it.
The respondents said that Excel's Ribbon has reduced their productivity by an average of 19%. Users with a negative opinion of the Ribbon estimate that it's reduced their productivity by 34%.
You can read comments about the Ribbon, both good and bad, in the columns at the right. Because I received many more negative comments than positive ones, I included most positive comments a much lower percentage of negative ones.
The Ribbon replaced menus that were used in prior versions of Excel. The Ribbon consists of several tabs that reveal collections of labels and icons. Depending on the width of a user's Excel window, there are at least 19 versions of Excel's Ribbon. This figures shows a view of the Home tab in one of those versions:
About 70% of the respondents had a negative opinion of the Ribbon and about 25% had a positive opinion. The remaining respondents had no opinion.
As the following figure illustrates, advanced users were somewhat more negative about the Ribbon than were intermediate users. (Not enough beginning users responded to be relevant.)
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| A larger proportion of advanced users had a negative opinion of the Ribbon than did intermediate users. |
Respondent's opinions about the Ribbon were strongly influenced by
its effect on their productivity, as this table illustrates.
These results exclude dozens of surveys that showed losses in productivity of more than 100%. Although these scores reflect an intensity of feeling about the ribbon, they can't be used in our summary statistics.
Those who hate or merely
dislike the Ribbon felt that it reduced their
productivity significantly. Those who love or like the Ribbon feel that it
increased their productivity by a lesser amount. On average, all users who responded estimated
that the Ribbon has reduced their productivity.
The statistical accuracy of this survey could be challenged because online surveys don't produce a random sample of responses.
Even so, this chart shows that that the results have been relatively consistent month by month. It appears safe to say that the majority of experienced Excel users dislike the Ribbon.
Excel developers have seen an opportunity in this response to the Ribbon. Search Google for the words add-in Excel 2003 2007 Ribbon menu and you'll find a selection of Excel add-ins designed to bring Excel 2003-style menus to Excel 2007.
Unfortunately for businesses, those 3rd-party menu add-ins could make Excel's Ribbon/menu problem even worse. This is because widespread use of the competing menu solutions would create many unique versions of Excel 2007...a Menu of Babel. The Ribbon may hurt productivity, but having no standard menu-like interface -- that is, no standard version of Excel -- could hurt business productivity even more.
Why Does the Ribbon Hurt Productivity?
The most frequent complaint about the Ribbon is that it requires more clicks and mouse movement than the menu does. But the problem goes deeper than that.
1. The Ribbon eliminates built-in and custom toolbars, and also tear-off menus, features that provide one-click access to commands in a context that Classic Excel users could define for themselves. To illustrate, if we were working with external data, both the data commands and the formatting commands could be available immediately.
Instead, the Ribbon
enforces context generally defined by the active
object, which could have little relationship with the task we want to
perform. This forces a greater number of visual searches and
a greater number of clicks.
More searching and clicking means less productivity.
2. The Ribbon generally places Excel add-ins into their own tab, rather than allowing them to be
grouped by task within a menu structure. Out-of-context searching and
clicking means less productivity.
3. The Ribbon consists of a random collection of icons and text, arranged
horizontally. This is more difficult for humans to search than is a
contextually organized vertical list with no icons acting as speed bumps. More
time
spent searching means less productivity.
4. The Ribbon changes significantly with the width of Excel's
window. This means that there isn't just one Ribbon; there are at least 19 of them.
Therefore, users never truly will know the Ribbon, because there are
too many Ribbons to learn. Instead, users always are forced to
search the current version of the Ribbon for the commands they need. More
searching means less productivity.
5. The Ribbon's 19 versions slow the development of muscle memory.
Muscle memory allows us to choose the commands we want, virtually without
conscious thought. Reduced muscle memory means reduced productivity.
Though not directly related to the Ribbon, several users also mentioned Excel 2007's non-modal dialogs
as a productivity problem. These dialogs allow users
immediately to change cells, charts, and other objects as users change
dialog settings. In contrast, prior versions of Excel ask users to
adjust from one to many settings and then press OK.
The advantage to the Classic Excel approach is that we can choose some other cell or chart or whatever, then press Ctrl+Y to apply all the changes that we made in the dialog. But in New Excel, pressing Ctrl+Y applies only the one last change.
To illustrate the power of the earlier approach, in Excel 2003 I recently modified 30 charts in 30 quick clicks of Ctrl+Y. Each Ctrl+Y click applied about ten changes with one command. But in Excel 2007 it took several hours and many hundreds of clicks to change the equivalent charts in that program.
Why Did Microsoft Create the Ribbon?
When they introduced the Ribbon, Microsoft introduced a change that many experienced Excel users have said they don't like. Microsoft appears to have made a particularly strange decision when we consider that experienced users -- who include many company presidents and most Chief Financial Officers -- have a significant influence on the version of Excel that their company uses.
Why would Microsoft make a decision that's so unpopular with its most influential users?
A speculative answer is that Microsoft didn't realize how unpopular the Ribbon would be. A better answer is that Microsoft had at least three reasons for introducing the Ribbon.
First, the Excel team added many new features to Excel 2007. They added so many features that the Excel 2003 menu was going to have to be changed in any case. Using the Ribbon made it easier for the programmers to provide access to Excel 2007's new features.
Second, Microsoft apparently introduce the Ribbon to Office 2007 as a branding device. More new features were added to Office 2007 than ever had been added before. To emphasize these improvements, Microsoft wanted the product to look and feel different from previous versions.
Third, and most significantly, Excel users have been requesting features for years, features that already existed in Excel. This created significant frustration on Microsoft's Excel team. They had worked very hard to create useful features that many users never had discovered.
Therefore, the overriding idea that guided the creation of Excel's Ribbon was discoverability. Microsoft wanted an interface that would make it easy for users to discover Excel's hidden features. Merely by allowing users to discover those features, Microsoft expected to enhance the value of Excel significantly.
However, Microsoft apparently failed to consider that by improving discoverability in the way they did could hurt user productivity. They also failed to consider that most Excel users -- and their employers -- care passionately about productivity and care nothing about discoverability.
When Will Excel Menus Return?
Microsoft has said that the Ribbon is here to stay. Not only does this mean that the Ribbon won't go away, it means that Microsoft does not intend to offer a Classic Excel alternative to the Ribbon.
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In short, discoverability will continue to trump productivity.
One day, perhaps, far in the future, a senior Microsoft manager will have a Brilliant Idea. She'll decide that Microsoft should deliver a feature that its users care passionately about. She'll decide to concentrate on Excel users' productivity.
When she does, Excel users will stampede to the stores to buy that enhanced version of Excel.
But until that version arrives, be sure to keep Classic Excel installed if you do decide to buy New Excel.
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Negative Opinions |
| "I've used Office 2007 for several months now and while
I like
some of the new features (1,048,576 rows!), I still hate the
Ribbon. I disliked it from the start and like it less now. I've gotten
used to it, but still think it is far less effective than the old menu
system." |
| "Possibly the most idiotic menu UI I have ever encountered. I'm an
Excel workbook developer and Excel 2007's Ribbon continually slowed me
down and confounded me.
"I eventually reverted back to Excel 2003 and
will remain on that version until (or if) Microsoft grows its brains
back and redevelops this monstrosity into something useful. Sun's Open
Office is looking better by the day (too bad about the primitive
scripting environment)." |
| "Bad move guys. We all hate to admit that we made a mistake but this
Ribbon is really a mistake on a grand scale." |
| "Google Sheets looks more and more like a viable option the more MS
continues to take steps backwards." |
| "Basically I have to throw away years and untold hours of familiarity
with Windows and Office applications in general, and Excel in
particular, and re-learn some foreign interface. I think transitioning
from a PC to Mac OSX was easier!" |
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"Everything takes longer. It's most unintuitive. I'm the network
admin here. I don't like it. And my users don't like it either." |
| "I use, teach, and develop in Excel. Everyone knows the old
interface; why does MSFT think everyone will be willing to learn a new
one? Sounds like a "New Coke" fiasco to me." |
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"After a year, I still waste time figuring out how to do something
that I used to do quickly." |
| "The way Excel functions were laid out was awful. Even with consistent
use for the past 4 months I still find myself hunting for things. I am
consistently taking four clicks to get to something that used to take
two. "Also, banishing Add-Ins to their own tab was awful. Now many of those
that I rely on every day are a couple of clicks away." |
| "When companies are continually working at the cutting edge and
always trying to be first to create next generation best practice by
leading and not following, then they are going to get it wrong some of
the time.
"With this Ribbon they got it wrong, seriously wrong." |
| "It's more gimmick than substance. Dump it!" |
| "Is Microsoft really trying to promote and advertise Open Office? The
Ribbon sucks!!!" |
| "The Ribbon is so bad that I don't use it, I have uninstalled the
software and am looking to sell it." |
| "I have seen many experienced users ask for the "Classic" UI to
replace the Ribbon, since it is a productivity killer, illogical and
confusing." |
| "Loathe the new ribbon interface. Ended up
uninstalling Office 2007 and installing a seven year old version
of Office instead." |
| "I spend *so* much time futzing with the interface; I'm more
concerned with how I'm doing things instead of the things I'm doing.
"A
giant step backwards." |
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"PLEASE, can we go BACK???
"I like new things like any other person but.. they need to
not overly complicate life in the process." |
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"The Ribbon UI by itself is ridiculous enough. The decision
NOT to provide a classic UI alternative smacks of arrogance and
sheer stupidity." |
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"I bought Office 2007 with my new personal laptop thinking it
would be a nice upgrade and am hoping with all my might that my
employer does not upgrade to office 2007. If I was using office
2007 every day, I would expect not to be getting a raise for the
next several years, because of the huge drop in my
productivity." |
| "There are some great new features in Excel 2007, but the
Ribbon isn't one of them." |
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"Extremely bad interface. I can see conversion to Office 2007
having a negative impact on a company's bottom line." |
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"The ribbon is the tool that have killed Microsoft Excel. I have used Excel 2007 for 6 months and came back with pleasure to Excel 2003. The decrease in productivity with the ribbon is very very very high." |
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"Visually it is a blur with too much information.
Functionally it is too many mouse clicks to a command. Botom
line - JUNK!" |
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"A terrible change in Excel!!" |
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"We received MS training during our company wide conversion. Trainer indicated that the "new" style was great for newcomers but poor for the more experienced user. It took me months to work smoothly with the new Excel and I still am not back to my old levels. Charts are a disaster, simple xy charts crashed Excel every time (anything over 10000 data points). MS was too interested in fluff (shadows and 3d shading - who uses that crap?) than making a useable system." |
| "Why force us? Make both old and new available. Maybe new
way works for the new users, but it is a whole new learning
curve for many existing users. We went back to 2003, after
buying only one 2007. Sorry MS, we have work to get done." |
| "The brand logo graphic, it should have
been a lemon, and a half rotten one at that. Excel is a business
tool first and foremost and productivity is king." |
| we spend years developing custom menus and toolbars to
enable very fast spreadsheet functioning, now, we have to go
back to ancient history. one of the things that made excel so
powerful in business was the ability to do code, macros quickly,
customize toolbars, customize menus, etc., etc., plus edit what
we had done. this is typical MS, to take away features and then
give them back in later versions. the learning curve is steep
enough to get up to some speed with excel's functions and
capabilities; now, we'll just mix up all the menus and toolbars,
hide things so well we don't even know they're not there
anymore, and make everything have extra keystrokes (which was
why a lot of customizing takes place- to eliminate keystrokes
and automate tasks). sometimes I think MS developers live in a
different galaxy... if people didn't want or need that stuff, it
never would have been there in the first place. at our company,
we don't have extra time or extra people to muddle through what
MS determines is 'best for us'; we need to get things done,
yesterday. i think MS develops all new updates with newbies in
mind, and forgets about who is really using excel, and what it
is being used for... |
| The ribbon is just pointless, shuffling all commands to
disorientate experienced users is downright commercial suicide
for MS. I found it completely unusable. I now mainly use
OpenOffice, its a much easier move from 2003. |
| The new 'ribbon' interface is nothing short of terrible. An
ergonomic disaster zone. The one-line-only 'quick access
toolbar' which, ludicrously, competes for space with the
document title looks like an afterthought or perhaps an exercise
in mocking long-time users of the product. I use Excel at work every day - like hundreds of thousands of people in fact. To take away a perfectly useable, compact, easily-customizable menu/toolbar interface and to enforce an oversized, inflexible new one is an act of such irresponsible arrogance and stupidity it takes the breath away. |
| The Ribbon is completely frustrating. I installed MS Office
2007 and after a month reinstalled the 2003 version. I won't use
the 2007 software because of the Ribbon. I resent having to
search help to figure out how to do what I used to do quickly. I
am much too busy to waste time learning this tool and feel that
if I didn't adjust to the Ribbon after a month's use then the
software isn't worth further time/effort investment on my part.
If you notice in all the "positive" comments collected in this
survey, the users consistently indicate that they were
frustrated with the Ribbon and it took them a long while to
learn/adjust to it. Well, if you ask me this is backwards
mentality. Why should the users have to make such adjustments;
shouldn't it be the software that adjusts to users? |
| I'm an Excel experienced trainer. It has been said over and
over and I will continue to say it in all my classes: Office
2007 will double the number of clicks required to do the same
thing. What happened to the saying "If it works why change it?" Beginners like it because it's cool but in the office cool is not synonym of productivity. If 50 employees loose, say, 10% productivity (which cannot ever be recovered) then it may cost many thousands of dollars to the employer. My moto for Office 2007 is "Keyboard shortcuts will save your sanity". Plus I hate losing features when I upgrade. In each application I can say that I lost four of five of my favorites features ... Gone completely. In two words Office 2007 is "Eye Candy". |
| I feel Microsoft is attempting to tap a "NEW" Market with
the ribbon. They have basically abandoned those of us who have
used excel for many years, in hopes of luring more of the
attracting novice users to their product. I purchased Office
2007 Ultimate Suite and have since uninstalled and shelved it in
favor of productivity, rather than the pretty interface. I'm
sure I will have to find something else to use in the future, or
maybe someone will find a way to get the functionality back in
excel. Maybe even microsoft will eventually offer a choice of
interfaces?? |
| MS introduced many changes in Office 2007 claiming that had
'listened' to users requests for improvements. Typical MS
gobbledegoook. The beta version testing group told them the
ribbon was a disaster and they are still hearing the same story
from Moscow to Beijing and everywhere in between. The ribbon is
a major disincentive to 2007 migration and productivity
reduction is huge. Does anybody in MS understand that business
users have a job to do and very often, very little time to do
it. I am an IT administrator and I advise all my clients not to upgrade to Office 2007 purely because of the ribbon. |
| Making changes based on a dubious feedback tool like the
Office Improvement program that most corporate networks don't
allow access to is just bad business. Any application is most
useful to its user population when it can be customized for the
user's (not developer's) productivity needs. The ribbon needs to
be customizable - period. |
| I HATE the fact the menu system is completely gone. It
is patently STUPID that to get to the DATA ribbon you have to
hit Alt-A. What the hell is wrong with Alt-D for Data anyway? Menus were great for learning. I can read faster than I can guess what those stupid fat buttons mean. Having to mouse over them to get a description is a f*ing waste of my time. |
| If I want to insert a column, I click the Insert tab,
right? No. There is no option to insert a column there. There
are many more examples; it is just impossible to arrange
hundreds of possibilities in a way that is logical to all users.
[An Excel MVP] |
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More Negative Opinions |
| Trying Excel 07 is seriously a complete waste of time, as is
the times I tried Word 07. I will continue to use 97 and 2003. I
will never purchase another office suite until I can actually
use it to do work. |
| my carpel tunnel issues have come back
because you have to click so many extras times to do what could
be done before in one click. |
| Too much extra clicking, big goofy icons that waste work
space. It's a big unfortunate step backwards. What the hell were
they thinking! |
| Intuitive ? - Definitely Not Productive ?- No It's a white elephant. Dump It |
| Who ever came up with the ribbon idea should have their
[body part] sewn closed. |
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After using Excel 2007 for 15 months I can easily say the ribbon is pure
stupidity. |
| The learning curve is too steep for us old timers. |
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Microsoft showed no regard for the time investment required to be a
power user of their products - their attitude seems to have been "Just
learn it all again and reprogramme all those physical memories that your
fingers have". No, I intend to stick with Office 2003 until I retire. |
| Definitely slows me down. Adds extra steps that are
unnecessary. Cumbersome and ridiculous. |
| What I hate - the inability to customize
ribbon bars, the bars change on their own, so repeated steps
that should use the same bar need to first click back to the
ribbon bar. |
| I see no benefit - it takes me longer to find the command
that I have been using happily now for years, and then - horror
of horrors - some of the new versions don't convert back when
colleagues with 2003 open them - for example, conditional
formatting entered in 2007 and, properly saved as a 2003 file, is
INVISIBLE when opened in 2003! Why?? |
| There are many options which do not appear
to be included in the ribbon interface and I have to add them to
the "Quick access toolbar" which by the time I'm done adding
them is no longer quick. |
| I didn't upgrade, but my son is using the new version for
school. I can never find anything! And all the icons dumb it
down. |
| in big worksheets you have to move up to
ribbon many times, again and again....... i hate it..... |
| The ribbon was created by a programmer that had never had to
work against a deadline. The ribbon will make sure the word
efficiency and Microsoft Office will never be used in the same
sentence again. |
| My time is too valuable to spend
multiple-clicking when one click used to do. I have hidden the ribbon and put as much on the Quick Access Toolbar as I can but it is still so very far behind what I used to have. As soon as I can finish with the >65k line report, I will be back to good old Excel 2003! |
| The worst thing is that some keyboard shortcuts don't work anymore. |
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The new ribbon creates additional steps you must take in order
to do the same things that simple menus and toolbars allowed
in previous versions. |
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One of the lousiest ideas to ever come from Microsoft! |
| When a company makes a drastic change to a
program's user interface they are forcing users to become less
productive; what business wants to do that. We always appreciated the improved features of the latest version of Excel. But now we are staying with Excel 2003. |
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It takes more time to do the same things than before |
| "I wish Microsoft had an option that
allowed users to select the "Classic" menu bar instead of the
Ribbon." |
| "Have invested years in becoming quite proficient with
Excel / PPT, etc. Now I have to click and explore like a newbie
to do the things I can already do in my sleep. Doesn't make
sense. I bought Office 2003 and will stay with it until the
Classic UI returns." |
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I'm with those who are asking for the option of the old
menus, bring them back. |
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It took a while to get my head around it, and with nearly 1,000
users in this business, we are reviewing whether to even roll it
out. Office 2003 is more than sufficient for most users and the
lost productivity would cost $ Millions. |
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The toolbar-customization allowed in previous versions was a
much better model with which to enhance personal productivity. |
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The ribbon is the reason I stay with version 2003 despite the
improvements!!!!! I'm much more productive with Office 2003. |
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This appears to be a case of "change for sake of change" that
adds no benefit to using Excel. There wasn't anything wrong with
the old system that warranted such a drastic change. |
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It would have been nice to turn on a "Classic" look. |
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It impedes my ability to accomplish my job. |
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Large learning curve relative to the Classic menu. Too many
clicks to get where I need to go! And finally, it takes up too
much space and requires more time to do things. Who thought
these were GOOD ideas? |
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