The Microsoft Word 2007 Ribbon

The Ribbon is the most used aspect of the Microsoft Word interface. It has the vast majority of the commands that the programme has to offer. The commands are arranged in a series of Tabs. To activate any Tab, click on its name. The commands shown in each Tab are related in some way. For example, the commands in the Home Tab are those which are most frequently used in Microsoft Word: commands such as Cut, Copy and Paste and commands for changing the paragraph and character attributes of your text.

The Insert Tab contains commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.

The Insert Tab contains commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.

The References Tab contains controls for adding references to longer documents such as tables of contents and indexes.

The Page Layout Tab contains commands relating to the formatting of the page as a whole, such as the orientation and the margins.

The Insert Tab contains commands for adding elements to your page such as tables, pictures, headers and footers.

The Page Layout Tab contains commands relating to the formatting of the page as a whole, such as the orientation and the margins.

The View Tab contains controls for displaying the document in various ways. There are also controls for zooming in and out.

As well as the regular Ribbon Tabs, Microsoft Word 2007 also contains context sensitive Tabs. These are Tabs which only appear in a certain context.

The Mailings Tab contains controls for creating mail merge documents. This involves the combination of a data document, which normally contain a list of recipients, with a main document, which is normally a letter, to produce a series of personalised mail merge documents which can then be sent out to each recipient.

Finally, there is the Developer Tab. This holds commands for creating and editing macros and Visual Basic applications.