Introduction Questions
Button Drop-Down – Ctrl Key Result
This index page last revised: 28 Mar 2021 15:19:04 -0500 .
Note, the (Windows) System Clipboard holds the last item cut or copied. It only holds one item.
Next is the Oops button: Clear Formatting, which will strip the effects of the other buttons in the font group from selected text.
The following are all considered Direct Formatting by Word and can be cleared by the Clear Formatting button (or by Ctrl+Spacebar).
The Font Group
The font group has to do with how characters look. It is distinguished from the paragraph group where the formatting handles the entire paragraph. I am going to divide these controls into three parts:
Controls that give you direct formatting or erase that formatting,
A Control that changes the Case of text but is not formatting, and
Controls that change how the text looks but are not considered formatting.
Let’s look at the last two types, first, because there are only two of them.
Bullets and Numbering is the top-right section of the paragraph group.
For simple documents that will not need much editing, these will work fine.
This page is about the Home tab and its controls. I attempt to distinguish those controls that apply a formatting to text and those which change text (and the hybrid which is highlighting). This page is just started.
You can also choose to define your own bullet icon.
For documents that are going to be heavily edited or with multiple kinds of bullets, I recommend use of bullets linked to Styles. See How to control bullets in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly.
The Home Tab – the basic workspace in a document:
Included with the numbering is a first-line indent and a hanging indent. Your numbered list will be set in from the margin and following lines in the paragraph will be set in more.
As with bullets, you can apply this to existing paragraphs.
As with bullets, the down-facing triangle will give you more choices.
The screenshot above shows the gallery of choices. As with the bullets gallery, the list number gallery lets you preview your choice for selected text. In this show, the current choice is with the full stop following the number; the previewed choice is with a right parenthesis. As with bullets, you can define a new format. In addition, you can reset or restart your numbering.
Again, with simple documents that will not be edited much, this button works fine. For anything more complex, you will want to go to Numbering linked to Styles. See How to create numbered headings or outline numbering in Ribbon Versions of Word by Shauna Kelly. This method gives much finer control and is much less prone to development of “spaghetti numbering.”
The little arrow in the bottom right corner of the Paragraph group launches the Paragraph Formatting dialog. Again, such formatting is best done using Styles rather than directly.
The Voice Group – Dictate Office 2019/365 Only
This page has been exploring the controls in Word 2010 and 2013. The Home tab has remained mostly the same in all versions of Word. Here are some screenshots.
Word 2007
-Word 2007 – wider
-Word 2007 – narrower
The three tabs above are all screenshots of the ribbon on the same computer. Word repackages the ribbon tabs to fit the available space. Here, I’ve simply decreased the size of the screenshots of the wider versions.
In the wider version, it gives more space to the Styles Gallery. In the narrower version some buttons shrink or lose captions. The combination of screen size and resolution determines what you will see, so your ribbons may not look exactly like any of the ones shown here. Another example showing different screen layouts is in the Word 2010 version of the Drawing Tools contextual tab below. Your ribbon may or may not have a Developer Tab, that is up to you.
The Word 2007 and 2010 tabs shown are from a laptop running Windows Vista. The Word 2013 tabs are from a desktop tower running Windows 7 on a larger screen.
Word 2010
Word 2010 – Narrower
(Note the collapse of the QuickStyles Gallery and Editing Group. The Quick Styles gallery is now available through the dialog launcher button next to the word “Styles.”. Other groups are compressed. This is less than half as wide as the one immediately above it.)
Word 2013
Word 2016/365
Original Word 2016
Word 2016/365 in 2018 – Note Voice/Dictate Group on Right – this is likely to be the starting point for Word 2019
Word 2019/365 in 2019
The Styles Group in Word 2007-2010 is shown above. The Styles Group for 2013 and later no longer has the Change Styles dropdown. That has been moved to the design tab in those versions.
Clipboard — Font — Paragraph — Styles — Editing — Voice (2019)
The Editing Group actually appears on the far right end of the Home Tab.
The Editing Group has three choices, two of which are drop-down.
Purpose
The Home Tab is about the basics of how text looks when it is printed or displayed online. It gives access to both direct and Style-based formatting. Because of the importance of Styles to using Word effectively, it devotes a great deal of space to Styles.
The Home Tab has its controls arranged in five (six) groups from left to right:
Group names are at the bottom of the Ribbon and groups are separated by a thin line. Most but not all groups have a dialog launcher button in the bottom right corner of the group. The Home Tab shown above is a screenshot from Word 2010. The Home tab has varied slightly through Word versions. These variations are shown at the end of this page.
Word 2019/365 has added a sixth group at the far right: Voice. It holds a Dictate button.
I do not pretend to know what every control does, especially the ones on the dialog boxes. I will tell you what I know. If I am speculating or guessing, I will try to make that clear. As I learn more, this page will be changed. This is a “work in progress.”
The clipboard group is on the far left of the Home Tab. It is often used in conjunction with the Editing group, which is on the far right of that tab.
Paste (with options) Ctrl+V: I have been told that when Microsoft studied Word users, they discovered that the most used Command was “Paste” so when they redesigned the user interface, they decided to give this command prominence as the first button people would see. (The keyboard shortcut in most Windows programs including all versions of Word is Ctrl+V.) The Paste button is actually a drop-down menu of paste choices which is similar to the paste options you see after you paste if you use the the Ctrl+V shortcut.
The Cut Button is the mouse equivalent of Ctrl+X.
The Copy Button also puts selected text or graphics into the Clipboard. It remains where it is, though. The keyboard equivalent for this is Ctrl+C.
The Format Painter (Brush) ( Ctrl+Shift+C to copy formatting, Ctrl+Shift+V to paste formatting)
I strongly urge people to use Styles rather than the Format Painter. In the long run it will make your life much simpler.
Bullets
List Numbering
Changes / suggestions / ideas can be sent to Charles Kenyon .
This page viewed times since 14 April 2004.