The ribbon (2)

A new feature in Word 2010, or in any application of Office 2010, is that we can customize the ribbon.  We have a number of ways of doing this.

The first and fastest way is to, right-click anywhere on the ribbon and select “Customize the Ribbon” from the drop-down menu.
A second way is to go to the “Backstage” view, and select “Options” and, in the “Options” dialog box, select the “Customize Ribbon” category. I’ll discuss the “Backstage” view in greater detail, in the next lesson.

In both cases, this opens the following dialog box.

 

On the left (a) we find all the commands that we can add to the ribbon.
On the right side, we find the structure of the ribbon (b), as it would look at that time.

For example, you see all main tabs (1), the different groups (2) and the various command buttons (3).

 

To view the contents of a main tab, group, or command button, click the plus icon.
In order to fold it back in, click the minus icon (4).

You need to know and remember this.

You can not remove a tab from the ribbon, you can only hide it.
To do this, select the checkbox for the main tab (5).

What you should know is that only groups which are listed in the menu on the right, can be removed from the main tabs. Besides, you can just delete anything from the main tabs with the help of the “Remove” button (1).
You can reorder the tabs by selecting the main tab and clicking the arrow buttons in the dialog box (2).
To change the name of a main tab, select the tab and click the “Rename” button (3) below and, enter the name of your choice.

Now that you know how to hide a main tab, it doesn’t take much effort to create your own tabs containing your own groups and your own command buttons.
In this example, I hide all the main tabs except for the “Home” tab.
I click on the “New Tab” button to add the tab that was just created.
I called this tab “My tab”.  Not that original!
I select the newly created tab in the list and click the “New Group” button and give this group the name “My group”.
Next, I select this group, select the command button that I want to add from the list on the left of the dialog box and click the “Add” button.

When I’m done I click the OK button, and this is the result.
Your ribbon now has only two tabs (1).

Later, if you want the go back to set the initial state, click the “Reset” button and select “Reset All Customizations” from the drop-down menu.

You can always remove, newly made tabs, groups, and command buttons from a group.

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