So they "refreshed" my work computer and they've given me Office 2007 (no choice in the matter). Consequently productivity has dropped considerably. I will not waste time rehashing everyone's complaints about the ribbon, but I now understand what all the fuss is about. The "quick" bar is very limited in scope so you can't recreate the fast toolbars of previous Office versions. For mouse users, everything is about two clicks further away than it used to be. I am amused that there's a roaring trade in commercial add-ons that can allow you to mimic older versions of Office. Minimum price is ~$20. I've not seen anything free.
All I can do each day is to wait until I leave the horror behind (yay Vim!).