Unlike previous versions, Word 2007 does not allow you to do much with the fixed menu with its 7 tabs and 70 to 90 unintelligible cute things to at each tab.

It does allow you to show a "Quick Access Toolbar," that you can place either above or below the main menus.

Arthur itis refers to the "Office Button." Only Microsoft calls it that. PC-inhibited users frequently call it "the Pizza" but those of us who are more realistically inclined call it by what it looks like - the "Cow Splat."

The most useful change I've found is to add a few of the commands you're most likely to use often to the Quick Access Toolbar.

At "Cow-Splat" - Windows Options - Customize you'll find a list of commands that you can "Add" or "Remove" on the Quick Access toolbar. There's a drop-down window there, where you can choose a variety of lists of commands.

With a suitable selection of commands on that toolbar, you can mostly ignore the trash in the fixed menus for routine work. I have a "New Document" tailored to use a specific document template, a "Save" button, Spell Check, Undo and Redo, and a "Paragraph Format" that goes directly to a bottom level menu that takes about 7 clicks to reach from the main menus.

Once the Quick Access toolbar is up, there's a "fuzzy arrow" at the end of the bar that opens a drop-down menu where you also can "edit" the bar, to avoid sticking your finger in the cow splat.

You can also right-click on any icon on the main menus and you should see an option to "Add to Quick Access Toolbar. In some cases you can "drill down" from the top level menus to something that's useful, and add the lower level menu to the Quick Access bar, so that you can go directly to that menu with one click and don't have to hunt for it each time you want it.

John