Word 2007: Getting Used to the Ribbon
February 19, 2010 by Andrew Whiteman
Filed under Online Trainings
The Ribbon is almost certainly the most used aspect of the Microsoft Word interface. It has the vast majority of the commands that the programme has to offer. The commands are arranged in a series of Tabs. To activate any Tab, click on its name. The commands shown in each Tab are related in some way. For example, the commands in the Home Tab are those which are most frequently used in Microsoft Word: commands such as Cut, Copy and Paste and commands for changing the paragraph and character attributes of your text.
As well as the regular Ribbon Tabs, Microsoft Word 2007 also contains context sensitive Tabs. These are Tabs which only appear in a certain context, for example, when you insert a text box. Having drawn the text box, a special tab appears for formatting text boxes. However, when you click outside the text box to deselected it, the context Tab disappears.
The Insert Tab contains commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.
The References Tab contains controls for adding references to longer documents such as tables of contents and indexes.
The Mailings Tab contains controls for creating mail merge documents. This involves the combination of a data document, which normally contain a list of recipients, with a main document, which is normally a letter, to produce a series of personalised mail merge documents which can then be sent out to each recipient.
The Insert Tab contains commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.
The View Tab contains controls for displaying the document in various ways. There are also controls for zooming in and out.
Finally, we have the Developer Tab. This contains controls for creating and editing macros and Visual Basic applications.
As well as the regular Ribbon Tabs, Microsoft Word 2007 also contains context sensitive Tabs. These are Tabs which only appear in a certain context, for example, when you insert a text box. Having drawn the text box, a special tab appears for formatting text boxes. However, when you click outside the text box to deselected it, the context Tab disappears.
The Mailings Tab contains controls for creating mail merge documents. This involves the combination of a data document, which normally contain a list of recipients, with a main document, which is normally a letter, to produce a series of personalised mail merge documents which can then be sent out to each recipient.
Another example of a context sensitive Tab is the one which appears when you insert a text box. Having drawn the text box, a special tab appears for formatting text boxes. Once again, when you click outside this to deselected it, the context Tab disappears.
The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Word 2007 Classes, as well as Word VBA training in London and throughout the UK.