Microsoft® Access® 2010 Inside Out

Understanding the Office Fluent Ribbon

The Office Fluent Ribbon, shown in Figure 2-31, is a strip that contains all the functionality of the older menu bar options (File, Edit, View, and so on) and the various toolbars from versions of Access before Access 2007, condensed into one common area in the application window. Microsoft’s usability studies revealed that most users failed to discover many useful features that were previously buried several levels deep in the old menu structure. The ribbon is a context-rich environment displaying all the program functions and commands, with large icons for key functions and smaller icons for less-used functions. Access displays a host of different controls on the ribbon to help you build and edit your applications. ...