Section 19.1. Showing the Developer Tab

19.1. Showing the Developer Tab

If you're thinking about creating macros, that automatically makes you a Word developera person who creates (or, as programmers like to put it, develops ) programs, macros, templates, and add-ins. So, the first thing you have to do is make sure you have the Developer tab showing on the ribbon. This tab gives you tools for working with macros and Visual Basic code, content controls, XML settings, and more.

If you don't see the Developer tab on the ribbon, follow these steps to make it visible: Choose Office button Word Options Popular. Under "Top options for working with Word," turn on the "Show Developer tab in the Ribbon checkbox. The Developer tab shows up between View and Add-ins. When you click the tab, you see five groups of commands: Code, Controls, XML, Protect, and Templates. The tools you use most often to create and work with macros are in the two groups on the leftCode and Controls (Figure 19-1).

Figure 19-1. The Developer's tab Code group gives you access to commands to record macros and write Visual Basic code. The Controls group gives you access to Word's content controls as well as the ActiveX controls used in earlier versions of Word (Section 18.2.4).