Ribbon

Ribbon Structure

Application commands are shown as control elements. These control elements are grouped on a horizontal bar at the top edge of the application window. Groups which belong together are grouped into tabs. All tabs together and some special control elements make up the application's ribbon.

As with any other normal menu bar, terms which represent term groups can be found in the program window's header, e.g. Start, View or Design. Clicking on the term doesn't expand a menu; a tab containing the applicable commands appears instead.Each menu has its own tab.

Icons within the ribbon are grouped with similar icons, although this is automatically changed depending on resolution and/or screen size. The fact that more commands fit in the tabs means that you do not have to use dialogs (e.g. for paragraph formatting) as often.

Frequently-used commands can also be added to the toolbar for quick access; this then means that these commands can be quickly accessed to be run, regardless of which tab is currently shown in the ribbon.

A special control element can be seen to the left of the individual tab headers; it has its own separate color and is an icon instead of a header.This control element is called the application button; it contains the application menu.

Fixed and Context-Sensitive Tabs

The ribbon always contains the application menu and the Start, View and Add-Insstandard tabs which contain groups and commands.Other tabs only appear once you are in a certain context, e.g. if a diagram is opened for editing.A contextual tab group can be defined for such a context; this will then contain additional commands that are available in one or more tabs which can only be executed in this context.

(This is e.g. the "Diagram Tools" contextual tab groupDiagram Tools with two tabs for diagram Design and Print View for the illustration above.)