Microsoft Office® Access 2007 Inside Out

Understanding the New Ribbon Feature

One of the biggest changes to the new user interface in Access 2007 is the Ribbon, a replacement for the menu bars and toolbars that were in previous versions. The Ribbon, shown in Figure 2-20, is a strip that contains all the functionality of the older menu options (File, Edit, View, and so on) and the various toolbars, 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. ...