How many Options / Icons / Actions on a screen/list/bar

I face a hard decision when designing an interface for a windows fat client.

Do you have any good articles or answers to the following question:

  • When having a lot of options for a certain context - would you present all or most of the options as a one click solution, following the microsoft outlook Ribbonbar scheme - or would you rather make most of these functions accessable in dropdown menus, providing a cleaner UI. When using the second option, it can be frustrating for power users that have to find their option with an added click in a dropdown menu.

  • Microsoft uses a lot of icons for their actions / menus etc.. Is there any good guideline, until what number on a single screen/list/menus icons provide an navigational advantage and when it´s simply too much to comprehend?

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