Office 2007: The Ribbon

This is probably the most visible new feature, and also the one that most users have stated a dislike for. However, it is well worth persevering with and I have found that the more I use the Ribbon, the more I appreciate it's functionality.

Basic information on the new Ribbon that appears in Microsoft 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.

Many of the traditional menus and toolbars have been replaced by the Ribbon, a floating toolbar at the top of the window which organizes options into a changing set of tabs that group similar tasks. What may formerly have been deeply embedded in the tools menu or in the scarcely-used right click menu is now found floating at the top, and varies by program and task. Commonly used functions such as setting page margins or wrapping text in a cell are available in a way that directly corresponds to the tasks being performed.

TIP: If you need to hide the Ribbon to give you more onscreen working space simply double click on one of the tabs or press the CTRL + F1. When the Ribbon is hidden this action will display the Ribbon keys on the keyboard