The New Interface

Word 2007 has a new look a feel, called the Office Fluent user interface; this new look replaces menus, toolbars, and most of the task panes from earlier versions of Word. Word uses a Ribbon as a new component of the new interface. It consolidates all the related functionality in one place and improves usability.

The Ribbon is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete a task. Commands are organized in groups, and are organized under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as writing or laying out a page. The tabs are further organized into groups. To reduce clutter, some tabs are shown only when needed.

Contextual Tools

In addition to the standard set of tabs that you see on the Ribbon whenever you start Office Word 2007, there are two other kinds of tabs which appear only when they are useful for the type of task that you are currently performing.

Contextual tools enable you to work with an object that you select on the page, such as a table, picture, or drawing. When you click the object, the pertinent set of contextual tabs appear in an accent color next to the standard tabs.

To use Contextual Tools:

1. Select an item in your document.
2. The name of the contextual tools appears in an accent color, and the contextual tabs appear next to the standard set of tabs.
3. The contextual tabs provide controls for working with the selected item.

Program tabs

Program tabs replace the standard set of tabs when you switch to certain authoring views (such as the Print Preview view).

Microsoft Office Button

This button is located in the upper-left corner of the Word window and opens the menu shown here.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is located by default at the top of the Word window and provides quick access to tools that you use frequently. You can customize the Quick Access Toolbar by adding commands to it.

Dialog Box Launchers

Dialog Box Launchers are small icons that appear in some groups. Clicking a Dialog Box Launcher opens a related dialog box or task pane, providing more options related to that group.

Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar

Some Word 2003 commands are available in Office Word 2007 only from the list of all commands in the Word Options dialog box. To use these commands in Office Word 2007, you first add them to the Quick Access Toolbar as follows:

1. Click the Microsoft Office Button , and then click Word Options.
2. In the list at the left, click Customize.
3. In the Choose commands from drop-down list box, click All commands.
4. In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar box, select either For all documents (default) or a specific document.
5. Click the command that you want to add, and then click Add.
6. Repeat for each command that you want to add.
7. Click the Move Up and Move Down arrow buttons to arrange the commands in the order in which you want them to appear on the Quick Access Toolbar.
8. Click OK.