I’ve seen this question show up a couple of times in the forums for Microsoft Project 2010….whatever happened to the Copy Picture to Office Wizard tool? – or as I like to call it, the CPOW (pronounced KAPOW).
Here’s the tool in 2007. If you squint your eyes, it looks kind of like a camera with a blue lens:
…or it can be found in the Reports menu.
And here’s what it looks like in 2010. The two overlapping documents.
Logically enough, In the Copy Menu, you’ll find it as the second option…
The long and the short of it is that the camera icon has gone the way of the mullethead icons in 2002. (or was it 2000?) That’s when the Hall & Oates icon got a haircut to become the Resource Assignment button we all know and love now. One can just imagine the discussions around that singular event back in the halls of Redmond. Someone, somehow, decided that mullets were so “90s.”
Now, call me a Luddite, but I am not sure that I am comfortable with the fact that the CPOW is now tucked away somewhere few people can find it. I like the Ribbon/Fluent UI, and I think the Product Team did a great job highlighting key functionality in it, but I still want the CPOW out in the open where I can easily access it.
Luckily, it’s relatively easy to modify the Ribbon so it works for an ornery curmudgeon such as myself (or actually my colleague Peter, who is our official curmudgeon in residence. Compared to him, I’m just a curmudgeon in training).
Right click on some spare real estate on the ribbon, and choose one of two options: add to the Quick Access Bar, or add it to the Ribbon. Let’s take a look at those two options.
The Quick Access Bar, for those of you who may not have noticed it in Office 2007, is the thing at the top, above the Ribbon – or below if I so choose.
You’ll note that it comes with only a couple icons displayed, which in my world means a whole lot of wasted screen real estate that can be better utilized. In this case, I’ll add the CPOW to the Quick Access Bar:
I can also add the command to the Ribbon. In this case, I select “Customize the Ribbon,” and get the following dialog box:
I simply can add a new Group under the Task Tab. Add the Copy Picture Command. I can modify the icon, but unfortunately it looks like the odd grey square blue lens camera-thingy icon isn’t in the approved list for 2010. Perhaps someone in Redmond decided that cameras were so 20-‘naught, and not ready for the 20-teens.
…and I now have the command on my Task Tab in the Ribbon.
So I guess the lesson is that even as things change, we can still modify them to remain in our comfort zone….