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[align=center]Office "12" PROview: MS Word [/align]

Microsoft Word has evolved from being a basic word processing program to being one which is capable of creating professional documents for publication. The way one interacts with Word "12" has been designed to make it easier to find and use the programs capabilities. Microsoft Word is now a powerful program which makes it possible for novice users to access functions and features previously only easily available to the advanced user with training in its use.

The new look and feel presents the user with selections of potential results which one can browse, see the results in the document one is working on and select if that is the effect one requires, or continue to browse until one finds the look one wants.

Traditional menus have been replaced with Ribbons, Galleries, Command Tabs, Specialized Commands, and Live Previews.


Ribbons

As with the rest of the Office suite, a Ribbon is used to show the functionality of the program. In Word 2003, one has 3 levels of menus, 31 toolbars, and about 20 Task Panes in which to search for functionality. This has all been replaced by the Ribbon, which is the strip at the top of the program window and makes available most of what the program can do. To hide the Ribbon, double-click the active Tab of the ribbon and it will temporarily go away. To bring it back, double-click the active Tab again.



1. Tabs are designed to be task-orientated
2. Groups within each tab break a task into sub-tasks
3. Command buttons in each group carry out a command or display a menu of commands


Galleries

The Ribbon together with the Gallery are the two most significant user interface features which present the power of Office "12" in a way that makes it possible for users of any skill level, to take advantage of its capabilities. The most commonly sought-after results within any specific function are available in the drop-down galleries.

Margins-------------------------------Columns



Command Tabs

There are six Command Tabs in Word "12" (Write, Insert, Page Layout, References, Mailings and Review). By default Word "12" opens to the "Write" Command Tab. All tools required in the writing of a document are instantly available from there and it is only necessary to move to a different Command Tab as and when one needs to use a specific function from another.





Specialized Commands

After inserting an object (in this example a Table) into a document, one is able access specialized commands. These "Contextual tools" enable you to work with something that you select on the page, such as a table, picture, or drawing. When you click the item, the pertinent set of "contextual tools" appears in an accent color next to the standard tabs.




Live Preview

Live Previews show you what your document will look like if you chose to apply that formatting. For example, if you drop down the font picker in Word "12", as you hover over each option in the font picker with your mouse pointer, your document updates to show you what it will look like if you chose that font. No actual change is made to the document until you are satisfied with the result and click to select your choice.




Security

This bears mentioning and is a handy feature in Word "12". When copying content from the internet to paste into a word document, a dialogue box appears with a warning that the content potentially contains a threat. One has the choice to Enable the content if one is satisfied that the source is reputable or to Disable it.





The documents used in these screenshots were opened in "Compatible Mode" which is accessible from the "Word Option" button immediately to the left of the "Write" tab and enables documents created in earlier versions of Word or other document creation programs to be displayed correctly.

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Also see:
Office "12" PROview: MS Access

Office "12" PROview: MS Excel

Office "12" PROview: MS InfoPath