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Skip Navigation LinksPC Authority > Features > The PC Authority Guide to Office 2007
The PC Authority Guide to Office 2007
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FEATURE

The PC Authority Guide to Office 2007

by Simon Jones  on Oct 11, 2006
Tags: Microsoft | Office | 2007 | guide
You’re likely to notice a radical redesign as soon as you launch one of your Office 2007 applications, because in the most used apps all the menus and toolbars have been replaced with the brand-new Ribbon user interface. This arranges all the commands of the application into tabs and groups. If you’re looking for a command to do something to the content of a document, it’s going to be on the Ribbon.

Why change?
Applications such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint have developed so much over the past 18 years that Microsoft decided it had outgrown the menu and toolbars user interface. While in 1989, Word for Windows had less than 50 commands, Word 2003 had more than 250, and the number of toolbars had increased from two to 31. In addition, there were 19 task panes.

Microsoft tried to help users make sense of all the commands with ‘personalised’ menus that hide commands you don’t use often, so you can’t find them at all when you need them. The same thing happened to toolbars, with buttons you don’t use being relegated to the bucket on the end.

As Microsoft got more and more requests for features that were already in Office, it realised users just couldn’t find the features among all the clutter. So the company did some blue sky thinking and came up with the Ribbon.

In the top-left corner of each application’s window, there’s a big round button bearing the Office logo. This Office button is the replacement for the File menu. Here, you’ll find all the things you can do with a document, including saving, printing and sharing. At the bottom of the pop-up dialog, you’ll also find a button to let you see and modify the application’s options.

Tabs, groups and commands
Each application groups its commands into several tabs. The commands that are used most often appear on the Home tab and others are divided up logically between the other tabs on the Ribbon.

If the commands are simple, such as Bold, they’re just presented as a small button. Less common commands get an explanatory label, and some commands have drop-down buttons for more options.

A number of commands show galleries of different effects, which you can apply to the selected text or object. Some of the galleries show in the Ribbon, but others drop down below it to show their full contents. Galleries can implement quite complex effects with just one click, but to see their effect you don’t even have to click.

That’s because Live Preview will show you the effect of the gallery items as you move the mouse pointer over them. If you don’t like that effect, just move onto the next item. If you change your mind, just move the mouse out of the gallery and the text or object will return to its original formatting.

Many objects have commands that make sense only when that object is selected. You can’t, for instance, make any sensible use of the chart tools in Excel unless you have a chart selected. In Office 2007, these commands are presented on contextual tabs. For instance, selecting a table in Word causes two tabs, Design and Layout, to appear and, if you select a picture in a table, you see the Picture Tools tab as well as the Table Tools one.

You can, of course, use any of the other tabs while these extra context tabs are showing, so you can insert a diagram into your table using the Insert tab or change the alignment of the text in the table using the Home tab.

Sometimes you need to get precise control over a particular feature, and if there’s a dialog to do it there’s a little Dialog launcher icon in the bottom-right corner of a command group. Click this icon to show the appropriate dialog. You can also find shortcuts to dialogs at the bottom of drop-down menus or galleries.

When you select text in any of the applications sporting the new user interface, a mini-toolbar fades partially into view. If you move your mouse towards it, it becomes more solid. Move away and it fades. This toolbar contains the most-used commands in the application. Different applications present a slightly different set of commands. It may appear a little ‘shy’ at first, but for dedicated mouse users it’s very useful. It saves a trip up to the Ribbon for commands you use often.
The Ribbon is the single biggest change to the Office interface and is designed to help you find tools and features more quickly.
The Ribbon is the single biggest change to the Office interface and is designed to help you find tools and features more quickly.

The Ribbon interface is integrated into items in Outlook, but Outlook's main windows keep their old style.
The Ribbon interface is integrated into items in Outlook, but Outlook's main windows keep their old style.
Copyright © 2009 Dennis Publishing
This article appeared in the November, 2006 issue of PC Authority.
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