Tip: Increase Office 2007 Productivity

Office 2007 showcases a new feature called the Ribbon for accessing tools within applications. The Ribbon replaces the familiar menu and toolbars in previous versions of Office.

On the positive side, Office 2007’s Ribbon exposes several more options to the user (although, there is a  learning curve to get the most of use out of it).

On the negative side, the Ribbon takes up a lot of space at the top of the screen. This is especially true if you have a laptop with a widescreen aspect ratio.

In Word 2007, Powerpoint 2007, Excel 2007, and Access 2007, if you double-click on one of the Ribbon tab labels, the Ribbon will shrink.  Also, if you click on one of the tabs, the tab it will expand to reveal more options until you click off of it. In both cases, to return to the normal Ribbon view, double-click on one of the tab labels.

Learning how to expand and shrink the Ribbon and tabs allows you to gain real estate on your screen for  writing, slide design, or calculation tasks.  It also can reduce the amount of time you spend scrolling to complete your project.

If you have any tips or hints or questions about Office 2007, please send us an email at helpdesk@boisestate.edu, or post a comment below.