Tip #87 - Microsoft Office's Hidden Dialog Boxes

100 Computer Tips in 100 Days

Tip #87 - Microsoft Office's Hidden Dialog Boxes

When Office 2007 was introduced I thought the user interface was a great improvement over the classic menu driven access to commands. I also saw it as a huge training opportunity because everyone was confused about where their favorite commands had gone. Here it is six years later and people are still looking for their favorite options. Many of these options never made it to the ribbons. You can look as hard as you want, but your favorite option may be in one of the hidden dialog boxes.

 

Microsoft put these dialog box launchers in the lower right corner of the appropriate group. If you look at the Home tab, Font group you will see one of these little boxes. Clicking the launcher box will bring up the Font Dialog Box. Of course, you’ll see many of the choices from the ribbon but Small caps, for instance, isn’t included on the ribbon. Click on the Advanced tab in the Font dialog box and you’ll see the Scaling and Spacing options.

Look around at the ribbons and you’ll see that many of the groups have a dialog box launcher.

Happy Computing!

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