Office 2007: The Microsoft Office Button

Basic information about the new Microsoft Office Button in Office 2007.

When Microsoft Office first became widely available in the early 1990's, its applications, though advanced at the time, contained a limited number of tools and commands. Since then, recent versions have added dozens of new protocols and options that were organized in the "File" menu with reasonable accessibility. In its newest release, however, Microsoft sought to rearrange these options into a more user-friendly format, incorporating the new Microsoft Office Button and the Ribbon to accomplish this task.

The Microsoft Office Button combines many of the old file menu options (especially regarding the authoring of documents) with the functions that users find more need for in an age of increased online security. Sharing, protecting, and publishing tools were formerly hidden in places that were easy to find if their location was memorized, but now they follow a more instinctive design that separates them logically from the authoring tools.

Other useful little tweaks include the ability to anchor files in the "Recent documents" menu, which is displayed immediately upon clicking the Button, and a direct path to the Options menu instead of having to go through Tools.