With the release of the next Office the menu and toolbars will be replaced with "Ribbons". Does Codejock plan to add these control to the Xtreme Toolkit? If yes, when will they be available?

You can read more about the Ribbons here:

http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/ - http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/

André

I think the ribbons are not going to be popular with users. It's another case of the disappearing menus (Office again) that were more confusion than they were worth.

On the other hand, the textual separators on the context menus look cool:
http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/01/30/519335.aspx - http://blogs.msdn.com/jensenh/archive/2006/01/30/519335.aspx

The ribbons have some advantages and i'm actually thinking about using them in an application I'm developing.

The traditional menus and toolbars are insufficient for an application with several hundred commands.

The big difference is that the UI is context sensitive with the ribbons. I also don't think that MS will switch back to menus in the future and the ribbons will become more and more popular.

Therefore i think Codejock should offer them in the Xtreme Toolkit. But someone else asked back in September for them and a few people expected the ribbons to be already in 9.70, so i guess we will have to wait for them.

I also had expected that someone from Codejock would reply to the request.

"...I also had expected that someone from Codejock would reply to the request..."
Hey, I'm just giving my 2 cents worth on the topic. Feel free to ignore me (and I'm certainly not speaking for Codejock)

My opinion on the topic is this:
1) The root of this idea (whether it's the disappearing menus or ribbons, or some other idea) is that they want to make a complex program simple. I think this is really a futile task in the end. It is possible to simply things, but only to a certain degree. If you have several hundred commands, the application will look complex, mainly because it is complex.

2) By making the main interaction with the program (toolbars and menus) context sensitive, it is VERY hard to learn about the capabilities of the program you are not already using, except by little incremental steps.

3) I've read some reviews of people trying out the beta version (with the ribbons) and after a month they went back to the old style (of course, YMMV) That doesn't sound too promising to me.

4) In the distant future, I think the interface for Word will turn into some sort of google-type interface, where you just type in (or say) something like "bullet this list" or "create a table of contents", and the right action will occur, or right dialog will come up.

Warren wrote: Hey, I'm just giving my 2 cents worth on the topic. Feel free to ignore me (and I'm certainly not speaking for Codejock)

I meant it would be nice to get a reply from someone from Codejock too.

Warren wrote: My opinion on the topic is this: 1) The root of this idea (whether it's the disappearing menus or ribbons, or some other idea) is that they want to make a complex program simple. I think this is really a futile task in the end. It is possible to simply things, but only to a certain degree. If you have several hundred commands, the application will look complex, mainly because it is complex.

The main idea is to show only these command that are enabled in the current state of the app.

Warren wrote: 2) By making the main interaction with the program (toolbars and menus) context sensitive, it is VERY hard to learn about the capabilities of the program you are not already using, except by little incremental steps.

Maybe, but basically only how you explore an application changes. It only gives you the options you in the current state may be interested in.

Warren wrote: 3) I've read some reviews of people trying out the beta version (with the ribbons) and after a month they went back to the old style (of course, YMMV) That doesn't sound too promising to me.

I think it's too early to judge that, also don't refuse the idea behind the ribbons with the implementation in Office. I also don't like it in Word, but in Excel it is great. And for my application i think it would be useful too.

Warren wrote: 4) In the distant future, I think the interface for Word will turn into some sort of google-type interface, where you just type in (or say) something like "bullet this list" or "create a table of contents", and the right action will occur, or right dialog will come up.

I don't think so, they've made the ribbons to reduce the number of clicks to improve productivitiy, a "google-type interface" is nothing power users would accept.

SuperMario wrote: Yes, Codejock Plans on implementing Office 12 Ribbons  But there is no release date or estimation available at this time.

Will the ribbon be part of the Xtreme CommandBars? It would also be nice to get an estimation when the ribbon will be available because i would like to buy the latest version of the CommandBars and Docking Panes once the ribbon is available. As a freeware developer i want to avoid to buy the 1 year subscription.