One of the many complaints people have had about Microsoft products, at least in the past, has been the lack of menu customization, leading to claims that Microsoft was constantly telling us what to do and how to do it. instead of letting us do what we want with the products we buy.
Well, Microsoft is listening and now, for the first time, they made the menu system in Office 2010 fully customizable. Here we describe how to customize the main menu (ribbon) in Word.
First, click the File tab on the main ribbon to go to the Backstage:
Then click on the “Options” menu item:
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Then scroll down and select the Customize Ribbon option:
The screen should look like this:
This screen is split into two sides; on the left is what you can add to the feed, and on the right is what is already there. To add something to the current ribbon, select it with your mouse, then click the Add button, which is in the middle between the two sides (or, if you prefer, just drag it off the screen on the left and drop it where you want it. On the screen on the right)
Similarly, you can remove items from the ribbon by selecting it in the window on the right and then clicking the Remove button under the Add button.
However, before you can add any buttons, you first need to add a new group to the ribbon because Word won’t let you add or remove commands from existing groups.
To add a group, first select which ribbon you want to add the group to by selecting it on the right side of the menu. Then click the New Group button at the bottom of the screen:
Here we have added a new group under the Insert tab.
Since New Group is not the best name, it is best to rename the group after creating it by highlighting the group name and then clicking the Rename button:
After you’ve created and renamed the new group, the next step is to add commands to it. To do this, click once any command on the left side of the screen, drag it to the right side of the screen and place it in the new group that you created.
While adding or removing commands from the ribbon might be exactly what you want, it’s best to add a new tab to the main ribbon and populate it with the items you use most.
To add a new tab to the main ribbon, click the New Tab button at the bottom of the right side of the screen:
You should receive the following screen:
Notice how a new tab was created and displayed in the center of the right screen. And then, since the name “New Tab” is not very useful, select the new tab by clicking on it, then scroll down and click the “Rename” button.
Enter a new name for your tab and click OK. The new tab should now reflect the new name.
Then notice that when you added a new tab, Word also created a group name below it
And since the words New Group aren’t very useful either, select them, then scroll down, hit the Rename button again, and name your group something meaningful.
You are now ready to start adding content to the new tab. To do this, click one of the commands in the right window, and then drag it to the tab you just created.
Note. If there is a + sign next to an option on the command side of the screen, click it to see the commands below it.
Once you’ve added the commands you want, click the OK button in the lower right corner of the screen, and like that, you now have a new tab on your ribbon with all of your most frequently used and favorite commands.
And when you click on it, you will see that new commands have been added to it:
The ability to customize the ribbon in Word allows you to customize your ribbon the way you want, which should improve your use of Word.
Note. If you regret your settings, please click the Reset button at the bottom of the screen.
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