King Abdulaziz University

Faculty of Applied Studies

Computer and Information Technology Department

Module 1: Managing Documents and

Options

Lesson 1: Getting started with

Word
In this lesson, you will learn about the location and purpose of the key interface elements of
Microsoft Word 2019, understand how to manage the ribbon display, and proceed to explore
the ribbon tabs and associated groups and commands.

Lesson Learning Outcomes

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
1. Identify the location and purpose of the key interface elements in Word 2019.
2. Manage the Ribbon Display Options.
3. Get familiar with the ribbon.

Topic 1: Explore the Word interface

In this topic, you'll learn how to identify the location and purpose of the key interface elements
in Word, including the ribbon, title bar, Microsoft Office Backstage view, status bar, Tell Me
feature, and document working area. You can think of the interface elements in Word like the
dashboard of a vehicle that you're learning to drive for the first time. Knowing about the
dashboard will make you a better driver. In Word, you’ll navigate all these interface elements
while creating content in the working area.

Video

Page 1 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Here’s a great video about how Word can help you be more creative and productive. To observe
this video that's a quick overview of Word, refer to: What is Word?
The following screenshot of the Word interface comes from the Office 365 version of Word.
First, act like a tourist and just get familiar with each of the interface elements. Then go ahead
and explore them yourself. Ready for the ride?

Figure 1: The application window of the Office 365 version of Word

You should get familiar with the following key elements of the Word UI:
• The working area. The Word document has space that represents the document page,
referred to as the working area, that takes up most of the Word interface, as the following
figure depicts.

Page 2 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Figure 2: The working area

• Window management. Like other applications, Word has the Minimize, Restore Down,
and Close buttons to manage the application window.
• Title bar. A horizontal bar at the top of the Word window, the title bar displays the name
of the current and active document with the title of the application, such as Sales Report
- Word. If you haven't named the document yet, the title bar will indicate a temporary
name that includes the word “Document” and a number, such as Document2.
• The signed-in user. Office 365 might display the username and user image.
• The Tell me what you want to do box. The box for the new Tell me feature always
remains docked at the same location in Word 2019, in the Word Online application (for
Office 365 users) and in other Office 2019 applications. In the Office 365 version of Word
2019, this box displays Search instead of Tell me what you want to do.
• Rulers. Rulers assist in aligning objects that you add to a document and in managing the
width of your document besides having other purposes covered later in this course.
• Scroll bars. If the document has multiple pages, scroll bars (both horizontal and vertical)
appear in the working area for ease of navigation.

Page 3 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

• The status bar. The status bar displays various types of information pertinent to the active
document. Common displays include the number of the currently active page of the
document, the word count, a spelling checker indicator, buttons for selecting different
types of page displays, and a Zoom slider.
• The ribbon. The ribbon organizes most of the common commands and tools that you'll
use. Different ribbon tabs group these commands together. Each of the tabs organizes
similar commands together and nestles those commands in a group on the tab.
The following figure depicts the Insert tab and its Illustrations group.

Figure 3: The Insert tab and its Illustrations group

o Explore the ribbon. The first time you open the Word application, a series of ribbon
tabs displays by default. Each of these tabs places specific commands and tools
together as a collection, which is referred to as a group. In Figure 3, for example, the
Insert tab (number 1) houses a group named Illustrations. This Illustrations group
(number 2) contains a variety of commands (number 3), each of which represents
different types of objects that you can insert into your document. Each group is
separated from its neighboring groups by a vertical line on the tab. Other examples
of groups on the Insert tab are Tables, Add-ins, Media, Comments, and Header &
Footer.
• Ribbon Display Options. The new versions of Word have a new way for you to manage
your displays while you're working—the Ribbon Display Options button. You use this
button to manage the ribbon displays via three options—namely, Auto-hide Ribbon,
Show Tabs, and Show Tabs and Commands.
When reviewing a multiple-page document, you might feel the need to expand the
reading space. You can apply a ribbon display to assist with this. After you finish

Page 4 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

reviewing and want to continue editing the document, you modify the ribbon display
again to regain access to the commands on the ribbon tab.
• The Backstage view. Otherwise known as the File tab on the ribbon, the Backstage view
is where you manage files and data about the files. Functionality such as that provided
by Save, Print, and Open can all be found here. You can also manage the metadata and
options for the files from this location.

Try-it: Explore the Word interface

Work independently and explore the Word interface on your device. You'll need to locate a
specific list of key elements within the time provided by the teacher. This will help you assess
how well you understood the earlier demonstration by the teacher and if you need to
additionally focus on any areas.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this activity:
• L1_T1_try_locate_elements_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources
folder

Instructions
1. Work on this activity independently.
1. Ensure that the Word application is already open on your device. If not, ask the teacher for
help.
2. Follow the instructions in L1_T1_try_locate_elements_starter.docx.
3. Prepare to share the purpose of the elements that the sheet lists with the class.
4. Note that the teacher will guide the class through a debriefing to discuss the answers.

Topic 2: Manage the ribbon display

options
Page 5 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

In this topic, you'll learn how to manage the ribbon display, the ribbon tabs, and the commands
displayed. As you get more familiar with working with Word, you'll learn to work more
efficiently, and you might want to modify which ribbon tabs and commands display. To
understand the display options available to you, refer to Figures 4 and 5.

Figure 4: The Ribbon Display Options button

Figure 5 The expansion of Ribbon Display Options after you select it

Sometimes, you might choose to have a larger amount of screen space available to edit your
document, and you might therefore want to collapse all the ribbons or just the commands. You
manage how you observe your ribbon tabs and the commands located on them via Ribbon
Display Options. Figure 6 depicts how the display changes when you select Auto-hide ribbon
from the Ribbon Display Options box.

Page 6 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Figure 6: A document displayed with the Auto-hide Ribbon option applied

Manage the ribbon layout

Although a few ways to manage the ribbon layout exist, the simplest way is through Ribbon
Display Options. Select Ribbon Display Options to access three options to modify how the
ribbon will display in your application:
• Auto-hide Ribbon. This option hides all the ribbon tabs. To unhide the ribbon, select the
ellipsis (…) on the title bar. To fully restore and display the ribbon and commands again,
select the third option, Show Tabs and Commands.
• Show Tabs. This option displays only the ribbon tabs. Select a ribbon tab to display the
commands and once again to hide the commands. You can still access the commands by
selecting the associated tab name.
• Show Tabs and Commands. This option displays the all ribbon tabs and commands at the
same time. This is the default display, where the entire ribbon is expanded, displaying all
the tabs and their associated commands.

Try-it: Manage the ribbon display options

You'll work independently on a document and modify the ribbon display. This will give you
direct experience with how each of the three ribbon display options works. You can then use
these options when you begin working on more-complex functionality in Word.

Resources
You'll need the following resource for this try-it:
• L1_T2_try_farm_starter.docx in this lesson’s Learning Activity Resources folder

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Work independently on this learning activity resource file on your own device.
2. One by one, select each of the three options from the Ribbon Display Options box, and
take note of how the display differs for each option.

Page 7 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Topic 3: Focus on the ribbon commands

and groups
In this topic, you'll learn in detail about the locations and purposes of the commands and
groups on the ribbon. As you'll discover later, the ribbon tabs are the most commonly used
elements for working with Word. What you learn here will help you for the rest of this course.

Ribbon
As you learned in the previous topics, the ribbon is a collective, organized group of tabs. When
you install Word, you begin with ten ribbon tabs, including Help, by default. As you install other
applications that integrate with Word, you might observe additional third-party tabs appear.

Contextual tabs
As you continue working in this course and learning about the different objects you can use in
your Word documents, you'll notice additional tabs appear on the ribbon when you insert an
object. For example, when you insert a SmartArt graphic, two contextual tabs appear that apply
only to the SmartArt graphic you inserted, as Figure 7 depicts. These contextual tabs display
only when the SmartArt graphic is active and selected in your document.

Page 8 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

Figure 7: Contextual tabs for SmartArt graphics

Groups of commands
A group, when referring to the ribbon and commands you use in a document, provides an
organized structure that places similarly focused commands together. The ribbon separates the
groups of commands by light vertical lines and the name of each group. You can identify a
group on a ribbon tab by the group name and the vertical lines that separate the commands
for each group. Figure 8 depicts a great example of a frequently used group named Font.

Figure 8: The Font group on the Home tab

Page 9 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

The commands represent the tools you can apply while working in your document. These are a
key ingredient to success when creating attractive and unique documents. The commands are
the individual buttons located in the ribbon groups, such as Bold and Text Highlight Color.
Figure 8 depicts the commands to format fonts, such as Bold and Font Color, within the Font
Group.

Try-it: Focus on the ribbon commands and groups

It's time for a sticky note explosion! Work in teams of three through five or individually to share
the location of a command in Word on your device. Write your answers on sticky notes. Speed
and accuracy will win your team points.

Instructions
You'll perform the following general tasks during this try-it:
1. Pay attention to the instructions from your teacher.
2. Remember that you might be working in teams of three through five to locate commands
in the Word interface. Decide which student’s device you'll use for this.
3. Make sure you have at least 10 sticky notes with you, because you'll need to share answers
on these notes.
4. The teacher will ask all teams to locate a command and to then share on the sticky note
the tab and group that this command belongs to. You'll be given a maximum of one
minute to answer each question.
5. Work with your team as quickly and quietly as possible. Inform your teacher as soon as
your team has the answer on the sticky note. If you get it right and are the fastest team,
you'll win a point.
6. The team with the most points wins.

Lesson Summary
In this lesson, you learned how to identify the location and purpose of the key interface
elements in Word and how to manage the ribbon display, the ribbon tabs, and the commands
displayed.

Page 10 of 11
 King Abdulaziz University
Faculty of Applied Studies
Computer and Information Technology Department

In the next lesson, you'll learn how to modify the commands on the Quick Access Toolbar,
modify the commands displayed on the status bar, and find commands by using the Tell Me
feature.

Page 11 of 11