Microsoft Word 2013 Basics: Insert Ribbon

Besides adding text to a document, you may want to add images, links to web sites, charts, or other objects to your Word document.  The Insert Ribbon is one of the most heavily used Ribbons and contains a variety of features that will allow you to enhance any document.  The Insert Ribbon is broken up into ten different group tabs which are:

• Pages-Allows cover pages, blank pages, and page breaks to be added to the document.
• Tables-Clicking the down arrow will open up a dialog box that will allow the user to insert tables, draw new tables, import Excel spreadsheets, and by clicking on the Quick Tables option (which opens up another dialog box) you can add a variety of pre-built items to the document.
• Illustrations-This group tab has options for adding images, clip art, charts, and more.
• Apps-Opens up a variety of apps that can be used along with Word.
• Media-Allows the user to insert video clips from a variety of sources.
• Links-The most commonly used item here is the Hyperlinks function, which allows or objects to be converted into URL links to addresses on the Internet.
• Comments-Allows the use of comments on the side of the workspace.
• Header & Footer-All three functions on this tab will open dialog boxes to give users many different options for headers, footers, and page numbering.
• Text-This is not the same as using regular text in Word.  Text boxes are objects that are in essence, mini-Word documents, and the other features offer text-like objects such as signatures, WordArt, and more.
• Symbols-The two functions here, Equation and Symbol, both have down arrows that when clicked will open up dialog boxes showing a wide variety of equations and symbols that can be inserted into a document.

For most functions with the Insert Ribbon a new Ribbon will appear when an object is inserted into the document. In the image above, a picture has been inserted and the Ribbon changes to show new group tabs that will allow the user to modify the image. This Ribbon, called Format, will appear each time that you click on the image, then the Format tab. Format features the Live Preview mode where you can see how changes such as Picture Borders and colors will appear before you select an option.  In the image below an equation has been inserted and the new Ribbon is called Design and has group tabs for Tools, Symbols, and Structures. In Word 2013, finding certain tools can be a challenge because of the large number of Ribbons that can be generated by performing certain functions.