Update on The Ribbon

It appears that I am indeed the last person in the world to figure out how to conceal the large Ribbon at the top of Office2007 apps -- Word, Excel, etc. Good to find this out! And extra tips: 1) Ctl-F1 is the easiest way to get the job done, toggling the Ribbon on and off; 2) Double-clicking on one of the headings at the top of the screen "View," "Insert" etc also works as a toggle. This I knew. 3) Something I didn't know, and that is quite elegant for the keyboard-centric like me. If you have minimized the Ribbon, you can then hold down the Alt key -- and guides to the keyboard shortcuts for various commands appear. (Actually, this Alt-key trick works if the Ribbon is full-sized too.) There are many of us who have spent years learning the sequence of keys to get a job done without going to the mouse. Most of them still work, and this Alt-key trick provides clues. Picture below shows effect of Alt key with normal sized Ribbon -- for instance, Alt-A-L to align copy to the left. Thanks to Erik Love, Steve Endow, and a cast of thousands.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2008/06/update-on-the-ribbon/8107/