Work with the Ribbon

Instead of the menus and toolbars found in earlier versions of Office, Office 2010 features the Ribbon, which offers an intuitive way to locate and execute commands.

The Ribbon is grouped into tabs, each containing groups of related commands. For example, the Home tab in Microsoft Word contains commands for changing the font, setting text alignment, indenting text and so on. Some tabs appear only when needed, such as when you are working with a table or picture in a document.

The Ribbon is maximised by default, but you can minimise it to view more of your program window.

Use the Ribbon

1. Click a tab.

   The tab organises related tasks and commands into logical groups.

2. Click a button to activate a command or feature.

   A Buttons with arrows display additional commands.
   B With some groups of commands, you can click the corner group button to display a dialog box of additional settings.

   When you position the mouse pointer over Live Preview options on the Ribbon, you see the results in the document before applying the command.

Minimise the Ribbon

1. Double-click a tab name.

   The Ribbon is minimised.

2. Double-click the tab name again to maximise the Ribbon.

Keep the Ribbon Minimised

1. Right-click a tab on the Ribbon.
2. Click Minimize the Ribbon.

   The program’s Ribbon is minimised at the top of the screen.

   To use a Ribbon while it is minimised, simply click the tab containing the tools that you want to access.