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Introduction

Questions

This index page last revised: 06 Jan 2024 23:47:34 -0500 .

The Ribbon's Tabs in Word 2007 - Word 2013/365

Microsoft Word adopted the Ribbon User Interface (UI) with the introduction of Office 2007. This page explores some of the variations on that Ribbon through the versions.

In composing this page, a deliberate choice was made to cut and resize images. In composing this page, a deliberate choice was made to cut and resize images. All full-size ribbon images are displayed at 300 pixels width maximum. A 900-pixel version is The Ribbons of Microsoft Word 2007-2013 - narrow. The full-size images can be downloaded or displayed. The page with the full-size images displayed is The Ribbons of Microsoft Word 2007-2013. The images shown on this page are compressed so that they can show up on mobile devices. To actually view an image at a readable size, use the option in your browser for each image to view the image.

I am not a great lover of the Ribbon. MS tells us that it is easier for beginners to use, and they may be right. For experienced users, there is a tremendous learning curve. From Word 2007 on, it has been possible to modify the Ribbon. In Word 2007 this required an ability to code in vba and XML. In the later versions it has been possible to make much more limited modifications through the interface. All versions since 2007 have included the Quick Access Toolbar as the only easily modifiable toolbar. This is in sharp contrast to Word 97-2003 where all of the menus and toolbars were easily modified from within the interface.

For a start on modifying the ribbon using XML and vba, I recommend Greg Maxey's site, starting with Customize the Ribbon (It doesn't take rocket science) . An essential book, and not just for Word 2007, is RibbonX: Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon - by Robert Martin, Ken Puls, and Theresa Hennig.

Incidentally, I recently discovered that if you hover your mouse pointer over the Ribbon and use the wheel on the mouse, it will scroll horizontally through the tabs!

The images shown on this page are compressed so that they can show up on mobile devices. I do not recommend this. To actually view an image at a readable size, use the option in your browser for each image to view the image.

What I will do here is show some variations on the tabs I commonly used in Word.

The non-context tabs: Home - Insert - Design - Page Layout - References - Mailings - Review - View - Developer

Some context tabs: Table Design - Table Layout - Header & Footer Tools - Drawing Tools - Picture Tools

Not Ribbon Tabs - Backstage - The Office Button / File Button

On the left end of the Ribbon is a special button to take you to Word's "backstage." In Word 2007 this is the multi-color Office button. In the later versions it appears to be a blue tab named File. You do not see the document when you click on one of these. You also do not see any of the Ribbon tabs when your are in Backstage view. Pressing Esc returns you to the document view in the tab that you were viewing last. If you don't see your tab's controls chances are that you have minimized the Ribbon. There are screenshots from the Backstage view at the bottom of this page.

Minimizing the Ribbon - making more room to see your document

If you right-click on a Ribbon tab one of the options is to minimize/maximize the ribbon. Double-clicking on any tab or pressing the Ctrl+F1 key combination will do the same thing. In Word 2010 and later because the File Button is blue/black, it is easy to think that the File "Tab" has been selected or become the default when the Ribbon is minimized.

If the Ribbon is minimized, you can use the same process to bring it back: (1) double-click on any ribbon tab, or (2) right-click on any ribbon tab and uncheck "minimize the ribbon," or, (3) Press the Ctrl+F3 keyboard shortcut.

In Word 2013 or later, there is an additional switch that can cause it to entirely disappear until you move your cursor to the top of the screen. That is the AutoHide option. The control for this is an arrow in a box at the top-right corner of the window by the X to close a document. Using AutoHide also hides the QAT and the Status Bar. It gives you your document in print mode with the rulers.

The Non-Context Tabs - Display regardless of where you are in a document

The Home Tab - the basic workspace in a document:

Word 2007

-Word 2007 - wider

-Word 2007 - narrower

To see these full size, either go to the The Ribbons of Microsoft Word 2007-2013 page or choose to display image.

I won't do this with each tab. The three tabs above are all screenshots of the ribbon on the same computer. Word repackages the ribbon tabs to fit the available space.

In the wider version, it gives more space to the Styles Gallery. In the narrower version some buttons shrink or lose captions. The combination of screen size and resolution determines what you will see, so your ribbons may not look exactly like any of the ones shown here. Another example showing different screen layouts is in the Word 2010 version of the Drawing Tools contextual tab below. Your ribbon may or may not have a Developer Tab, that is up to you.

The Word 2007 and 2010 tabs shown are from a laptop running Windows Vista. The Word 2013/365 tabs are from a desktop tower running Windows 7 on a larger screen or from a laptop running Windows 10.

Word 2010

Word 2010 narrower

(Note the collapse of the QuickStyles Gallery and Editing Group. The Quick Styles gallery is now available through the button. Other groups are compressed. This is less than half as wide as the one immediately above it when both are shown at full size.)

Word 2013/365

Word 2013 - Narrower

Word 2016/365