The Office Button, Ribbon Tabs (Word 2007, 2010)

The levels of command organisation

• The Microsoft Word 2007 screen is made up of different levels of organisation.    Office Button   Tabs   Groups     Dialog Box Launcher Buttons      

The Office Button

• Clicking on the Office Button will display the following. 

• Within the dialog box displayed are common commands such as Open (for opening a Microsoft Word document stored on your hard disk), Save (for saving a Microsoft Word document to your hard disk) and Print (for printing a Microsoft Word document).  We will use these commands shortly.  For now just remember what is available when you click on the Office Button.

Ribbon Tabs

• When you first start Microsoft Word, you normally see the Home tab displayed, as illustrated.

• This tab contains icons and other controls that are most commonly used within Microsoft Word, such as making text display as bold or underlined.  You can also find more advanced options such as paragraph alignment, numbering and bulleting.  Move the mouse pointer over some of the icons and get a feel for what options are contained within this tab. 

• Click on the Insert tab and you will see commands and options relating to inserting items within your Microsoft Word document.  Again move the mouse pointer over the items and see what is available.

• Click on the Page Layout tab and briefly examine what is available within this tab.  Do the same for the other tabs.  In some cases, such as the Mailings tab you won't make much sense out of the commands at the moment, but all will become clear once you start using Microsoft Word for real.

Minimizing the Ribbon

• On certain computer monitors you may find that the Ribbon occupies a large proportion of the screen area which may be better used for viewing your

document.  You can reduce the size of the Ribbon by clicking on the Customize Quick Access Toolbar icon:    Select the Minimize the Ribbon command from the menu.    The Ribbon will now be hidden from view with only the tabs displayed.  Clicking on a tab will temporarily re-display the Ribbon allowing you to select an icon, after which the Ribbon will be hidden once more. 

• To restore the Ribbon, simply repeat these steps selecting the Minimize the Ribbon command once more.

Switching between tabs using the mouse wheel

• Move the mouse pointer over the ribbon which contains the tabs (displayed across the top of your Microsoft Word document).  Move the mouse wheel in one direction and then in the opposite direction.  You should find that you scroll through the various tabs.