3 ms·

Why can't you customize ribbons? Anyway, I don't understand your distinction there, since every part of software can be customized however you like. Most users

• flukus 10y ago
  > Most users don't customize, and don't have any need to if the the software was properly designed for their use-case. I don't think it's possible to design general purpose software like word to any specific use case. There are simply too many users and too many use cases, from grandma writing a letter to professionals doing mail merges (or whatever people do with word).
• js8 10y ago
  > Why can't you customize ribbons? Two reasons. First, you don't want to, just like you don't want to customize main menu. There should to be a place that has every option, which you cannot unintentionally mess up. Second, ribbons are very carefully designed for looks, and it makes them hard to customize. I think it could be done, it's just not trivial. So, for example, in MS Office, they don't bother with customization. If you want to look at how customizable software looked like in the past, look at for instance AMI Pro. You could redefine keyboard shortcuts and toolbars any way you liked. And we are not even talking about software like Emacs, which can be customized very deeply. I think some users would customize, it's very paternalistic to think that they wouldn't, and it would make them more productive. But it's just not in the fashion right now.