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In Word 2010, you can arrange the ribbon the way you want. You can create new tabs and put the commands you use most often on them. You can move the tabs where you want. Really, you get to design the Word ribbon to match your own flow when you're working on documents. This is happy news, because when Word 2007 came out, people immediately wanted to customize the ribbon--to put the things they wanted where they wanted or to add new tabs. Word 2007 didn't include a friendly way to do that. Now, it's as easy as clicking File, clicking Options, and clicking Customize Ribbon.From there, you can add your own tabs by clicking New Tab and then clicking the new tab and clicking Rename (so that you can call it something more fun and descriptive than "New Tab").
For example, I can add a tab called "Writing."And to those tabs, you can add your own groups. In my example, I add groups for printing, formatting, and tools.
Now that you have your own tab and your own groups, you can add any commands you want from the command well (which sounds a little bit like a wishing well). To see all of them, click the arrow below Choose commands from, and then click All Commands. It's a long list.
Next, click the group you want to add commands to, click a command in the list of commands, and then click Add. To continue with my Writing tab example, I can add Quick Print and Print Preview and Print to my Printing group. I can put things like Header, Footer, and Table of Contents in my Formatting group. And I can add Thesaurus to my Tools group.
I can use the arrow keys to order my commands exactly the way I want them (in this case, up means left and down means right).
Finally, I can use that up arrow key to move my Writing tab all the way to the left of my Word ribbon, so that it's open automatically when I start Word.
Set the Word ribbon up the way you want it. And if you change your mind, you can change your ribbon, too.For more information, see this quick video, or read up on the detailed instructions for customizing the ribbon in Office programs.
-- Joannie Stangeland
Comments: (40) Collapse
For me Ribbon still contains too many glittering and distracting options.
So when I really need to type and create I use keyboard shortcut CTRL + F1 to hide/minimize it thus creating distraction free working environment. :-)
That's a good shortcut to remember, Mike. Thanks!
So, how do i remove a pre-installed command from a default group, such as "strikethrough" in the fonts group?
Brucer,
From what I can find out, it isn't possible to remove or rename the default commands. However, I'm checking to absolutely confirm this.
-- Joannie
Is there a way to reposition the ribbon so it sits in a vertical alignment on the left of the screen instead of horizontally across the top?
A.M.,
The ribbon can only be horizontal across the top. But, if you want more screen real estate up there, you can minimize it. (Right-click the ribbon to find the minimize command.) Then, you can click a tab to see the ribbon commands on that tab.
how do I enlarge the icons for the quick access took bar for word.
Bill,
It isn't possible to make the icons in the just the Quick Access Toolbar bigger. However, you can make everything bigger by adjusting your computer's display settings (the Display area in Control Panel).
I'm trying to think of a reason to go to Word 2010 when 2007 is such a bloated mess. I had to go from Word 2004 on Mac OSX to 2007 on Windows 7 and the lack of customization and user input is a shock to the system. So now Word 2010 has features that should have been there in the first place.
I'll continue to use 2004 whenever possible, then we'll see what horrendous mess they'll make of 2011, where they'll also put back some features they withheld from Word 2008. Oh boy... can't wait.
Fogharty,
I think that the ribbon customization is a really good reason to move from Office 2007 to Office 2010. Customers asked for it, and we added it to this version. Also, Word 2010 has the Navigation pane--which I think is one of the most helpful things around (that's my opinion). Eithe way, whether you upgrade to Word 2010 or choose Word 2011 for Mac, I hope it works well for you.
As a bit of a power-user of office 2003 at work, I also have 2007 & 2010 (beta) at home. Whilst I can completely understand MS wanting to improve the "discoverability" of features, the ribbon simply gets in *my* way and is a real hinderance to my use of office apps at home. in office 2003 I have custom tool-bars and menus containing all my key short-cuts, which I have duplicated (via normal.dot) to all the PCs I use. In office 2003, a piece of toolbar real-estate has a single function; in 2007 & 2010 its function changes as I move through a document. This aspect is counter-intuitive and its effect on the psychology of its users appears to have been overlooked.
Would it really be too hard to have a global configuration switch to allow users to select which interface they want to use? I have worked in software development for over 20 years and I do not believe it would be.
That way MS would get new users productive quickly, and their established user-base would not be forced to shift to a UI paradigm designed for new users.
If the ribbon is to stay (and I can tell I am on the losing team here!) can I also echo the request to make it "verticalisable"? I have a wide-screen laptop with vertical space at a premium. I accept that it might make things less discoverable, but this is not a problem for me. (If I want to do something and do not know how, I use the Help or a search engine.)
Dear Ethel,
Thank you for your comments. The idea of the tools changing depending on where you are in your document was to make those tools available only when you needed them--just as the ribbon and galleries were designed to make things easier. I'll pass along your comments about a switch. Also, I very much appreciate your point about making the ribbon vertical for wide screens, which are becoming more and more common. I'll pass along that comment, too. In the meantime, have you tried minimizing the ribbon? It's the little ^ button in the upper right corner of the screen. If you click it, only the tops of the tabs show, and you can expand the ribbon by clicking a tab.
Again, thank you for your comments.
Please, please make the ribbon "verticalisable." I know it can be minimized, but that is not enough. Paper, and the documents we create to match that paper, are almost always in a vertical orientation. Let us have the ability to see documents on as much screen space as possible. After all, If I can move my start bar to the left or right, why not Word's ribbon? It doesn't make sense.
I've customized the ribbon the way I want it - but when I use some of the features on my custom tab (such as drawing shapes) - the ribbon changes to the drawing tools tab, which I don't need. This defeats some of the pupose of having a customized tab. I tried hiding the other tabs, but even that doesn't stop them from popping up when I don't need them. Is there a way allow me full control of when tabs are displayed?
Zanthipal --
Noted, and I'll pass your request along.
Pat S. --
In the Customize the ribbon section of the Options dialog box, you can turn those Tool Tabs off (individually), but then you won't see them at all (until you turn them back on). If that's what you want, click Tool Tabs under Customize the ribbon, and then clear the check boxes for the tabs you don't want to see. The other option is to click away from those tabs when they appear (click back to your custom tab).
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