Software : Tutorial: Get the Microsoft Office Ribbon exactly how you want it

Tutorial: Get the Microsoft Office Ribbon exactly how you want it

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Create and customise a Ribbon tab

The Ribbon in Office 2007 and 2010 is designed to make commands more accessible by making them more visible.

It works admirably, but it's likely you find that most of your frequently used options are scattered across the various tabs, which can prove very frustrating if you find yourself constantly switching between them.

Thankfully, there's a quick and easy solution to this conundrum: Microsoft Office 2010 enables you to create your own customised Ribbon tab in each individual application, such as Word or Excel. These can be populated with all your favourite Office commands, including those not found elsewhere on the Ribbon.

In addition to creating your own Ribbon tab, we'll show you how to back up your customisations and even export them onto another computer running Office 2010.

1. Access Ribbon options

step 1

Open your chosen Microsoft Office 2010 application – in this tutorial we're using Word, but you can customise the ribbon in Excel, Access, Publisher and other Office programs that use the ribbon too.

Start by right-clicking anywhere on the ribbon to reveal a pop-up menu. Select 'Customize the Ribbon…' to open the Options dialog box at the Customize Ribbon section.

2. Create new Ribbon tab

step 2

Click the 'New Tab' button and you'll see a new tab – handily titled New Tab (Custom) – appear in the Main Tabs list in the right-hand pane of the Customize Ribbon dialog box.

Make sure New Tab (Custom) is highlighted – if it's not, click on it once to select it – and then click the 'Rename…' button to change its name to something more descriptive.

3. Rename and reorder

step 3

Type a new name for your customised tab – something easily identifiable such as your own name or My Favourites, which we've used, then click 'OK'.

Use the up and down arrow buttons on the right of the screen to change the tab's position in the Ribbon – move it up the list to make it appear further to the left on the Ribbon.

4. Set up groups

step 4

Next, set up the groups that you wish to organise your various commands into. One is created by default, named 'New Group (Custom)'.

Start by selecting this and clicking 'Rename'. Give it a suitable name – ignore the option for creating an icon – and click 'OK'. Add more groups by clicking the 'New Group' button.

5. Locate commands

step 5

By default, 'Choose commands from list' on the left contains the most popular commands in your chosen Office app.

Click the drop-down menu to pick a different set – you can filter according to other Ribbon tabs, choose all commands or show those not available on other tabs.

6. Select and add commands

step 6

Scroll through the list looking for commands you'd like to add to your customised Ribbon tab. Click on entries with a '+' sign to expand their contents.

With your chosen command selected, click on the tab group you wish the command to reside under, then click 'Add >>' to add it.

7. Organise commands and tab groups

step 7

Entries can be removed from groups by selecting them and clicking '<< Remove'. You can also change the running order of entries and tab groups using the up and down arrows.

Individual commands can be renamed and assigned another icon to the default – click 'Rename' to do so.

8. Test your new Ribbon tab

step 8

When you've finished making changes, click the 'OK' button. You'll see your tab heading appear on the Ribbon – click it to reveal your customised Ribbon tab.

If you're happy with how it looks then continue to the next step. If you want to make further changes to the tab, you can do so by right-clicking anywhere on the Ribbon and choosing 'Customize the Ribbon' to reopen the Customize dialog box.

9. Export or back up

step 9

Back up your customised Ribbon tab (and other personalised Office settings) by clicking the 'Import/Export' button and choosing 'Export all customizations'.

Save the file somewhere safe, such as your backup drive. Restore your settings by clicking 'Import/Export' and choosing 'Import customization file'.

10. Your favourite commands, at your fingertips

step 10

Congratulations – you've just placed all of your favourite Microsoft Office commands on a single, easily accessible Ribbon tab.

Now you can quickly and easily access all your most commonly used Office tools and shortcuts without having to switch tabs, speeding up your workflow and making you more productive as a result.

Facebook snaps-up facial-recognition site Face.com

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Facebook has added another photo-based application to its arsenal, with the purchase of popular facial recognition service Face.com.

The website, most famous for its free KILK iOS app, already links-up with Facebook by picking out the mugs of your pals and suggesting tags before uploading snaps to the social network.

That functionality is now likely to be integrated into Facebook's own mobile apps, including the recently-released Camera add-on for iOS, although that's just an assumption at this stage.

KLIK also features a host of Instagram-like filters that can be applied before uploads take place and also has an API that's been used by a host of third-party app developers.

$100m buy-out

Following months of courting each other's affections, it's thought that the social network has splashed out up to $100m (£60m) for Face.com.

That's a fraction of the $1 billion in cash and shares the company doled out to take ownership of Instagram earlier this year, but still remains a considerable chunk of change.

In a post on the Face.com blog CEO Gil Hersh says: "We love building products, and like our friends at Facebook, we think that mobile is a critical part of people's lives as they both create and consume content, and share contentwith their social graph.

"By working with Facebook directly, and joining their team, we'll have more opportunities to build amazing products that will be employed by consumers – that's all we've ever wanted to do."

The acquisition, which Facebook is yet to comment on, will massively boost its mission to become the number one - both numerically and functionally - photo sharing destination on the web.

Yahuui Blog

Tuesday, June 19, 2012