Figuring Out the Word 2007 Screen (aka the Interface)

Microsoft Word wants you to manage, organize, and create things with words. That's the essence of word processing. What you see on the screen, on Word's interface, is designed to make writing an easy and effortless task. The largest portion of the Word screen is for composing text. It's blank and white, just like a fresh sheet of paper. That's where you compose and format your text.

Surrounding the text-composing area is a bewildering host of goobers. Despite their overwhelming appearance, the things that cling to the Word program window are there to help you write. The following list offers a quick top-to-bottom explanation of the tabs, toolbars, buttons, and other gizmos you see on the screen. Use Figure 1 for reference.

• The title bar lists the document's title, or merely Document1 until you give the document a title by saving it to disk.

• The Office button replaces the traditional File menu of most Windows programs. Clicking the Office Button displays the Office Button menu, a list of commands that deal with files and documents. It's the big round button at the top left of the screen, with four colorful squares in it.

• Tabs organize Word's various and sundry commands into groups based on word-processing activities. Tabs appear and disappear depending on what you're doing in Word.

• Groups and command buttons help keep commands for the various tabs organized. Each group contains command buttons that do specific things to your text.

• The Ruler may or may not be visible. When the Ruler is visible, it helps you set margins and tabs. The View Ruler button (refer to Figure 1) shows and hides the Ruler.

Below the writing area dwells the status bar. This informative strip of graphical goodness contains trivial information about your document, as well as the following ornaments:

• Document information lists optional data specific to your document.

• The View buttons specify how the blank page appears in the window.

• The Zoom slider sets how large or small your document appears inside the window.

Don't fret over these things! What's important now is that you recognize the names of things so that you don't get lost later.

• The tabs, groups, and command buttons change as you take on various activities in Word. Although this may seem disruptive, it's quite handy.

You can hide the Ribbon if you would rather have more room to write: Right-click anywhere on the Ribbon and choose the Minimize Ribbon command from the pop-up menu. To restore the Ribbon, right-click any tab and choose the Minimize Ribbon command again.

• Another part of the window, not shown in Figure 1, is the task pane. It shows up when it's needed, to offer more choices, options, or information.

• The Windows taskbar, located at the bottom of the screen, is a part of Windows itself and not Word. However, as you open documents in Word, buttons representing those documents appear on the Windows taskbar.

Unlike in previous versions of Word, the tabs, groups, and command buttons cannot be customized, moved, or resized. You can customize the Quick Access toolbar, but that's about it.