See also:

• Demo: Up to speed with Word 2007
• Interactive: Word 2003 to Word 2007 command reference guide
• Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for 2007 Office Word, Excel, and PowerPoint File Formats
• Keyboard shortcuts in the 2007 Office system

The Ribbon

Three parts of the Ribbon

The Ribbon has three basic components. It's good to know what each one is called so that you understand how to use it.

  Tabs. There are six of them across the top. Each represents an activity area.

  Groups. Each tab has several groups that show related items together.

  Commands. A command can be anything from a button, a drop-down list, or a box to enter information.

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is the small area to the upper left of the Ribbon. It contains some commands that you use over and over every day: Save, Undo, and Repeat. You can add your favorite commands to it so that they are available no matter which tab you are on.

To add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click the command you want to add, then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

More commands in dialog boxes

When you see a small arrow (called the Dialog Box Launcher) in the lower-right corner of a group, it means there are more detailed or advanced options available for the commands in the group. Click the arrow to open a dialog box or a task pane where you can work with the available options.

What happened to the File menu?

The File menu has been replaced in Microsoft® Office Word 2007 with the Microsoft Office Button . Click this button, in the upper-left corner of the program window, to get the same basic commands as before to open, save, and print your documents.

Click the Word Options command at the bottom of the menu and you'll also find the program settings that control things like your preferences for correcting spelling, which used to be found on the Tools menu, under Options.

Use the keyboard

Shortcuts that start with the CTRL key (for example, CTRL+C for copy or CTRL+ALT+1 for Heading 1) remain the same as in previous versions of Word. Keyboard shortcuts that start with the ALT key, however, have changed.

1. Press the ALT key.

   Badges showing the Key Tips appear.

2. Press the key for the tab or Quick Access Toolbar command you want.
   • If you press a Quick Access Toolbar command, the command is executed.
   • If you press a tab Key Tip, you'll see the Key Tips for every command on that tab. Press the key (or keys) for the command you want. Depending on what command you choose, an action might be executed or a gallery or menu might open; in the latter case you can choose another Key Tip.

Note   Most of Office 2003 menu access keys (those that start with ALT) still work. However, you'll need to know the full shortcut from memory. There are no on-screen reminders of what keys you need to press.

A new file format

The new Word document file format is based on the new Office Open XML Formats (XML is short for Extensible Markup Language). You don't have to understand XML. Just keep in mind that the new XML-based format:

• Helps make your documents safer by separating files that contain scripts or macros, making it easier to identify and block unwanted code or macros.
• Helps make your document file sizes smaller.
• Helps make your documents less susceptible to damage.

Work with people who don't have Word 2007

In Word 2007, you can open files created in previous versions of Word, from Word 95 to Word 2007.

• When you save a file that was originally created in a previous version, the automatic option in the Save As dialog box is to save it as the previous version (.doc).
• When you save a file as a previous version, if any 2007 features are not compatible with the previous version, a Compatibility Checker tells you so, and any new features will not work.

  Note that when you open a Word file created in a previous version, or when you save a file created in 2007 as a previous version, Compatibility Mode is automatically turned on.

  The Compatibility Checker runs automatically. You can also run it manually if you wonder whether any features in a document will be incompatible with previous versions. Click the Microsoft Office Button , point to Prepare, and then click Run Compatibility Checker.