Datasheet

If you don’t want the Ribbon at all, you can turn it off by right-clicking to the
right of the Ribbon tabs and choosing Close. To turn it on, enter ribbon↵. You’ll
use the Ribbon throughout this book.
Using the Ribbon Tools
Each panel contains tools from a related family of functions. For example, all the
common tools for editing objects in the drawing area are consolidated in the
Modify panel. When more tools are available than will fit on the panel, an arrow
is displayed on the panel’s title bar. Clicking the title bar expands the panel and
exposes the additional tools. Follow these steps to learn how the Ribbon tools
work and how they display information.
1. Click the Home tab on the Ribbon to expose the Home tab’s panels
(see the top of Figure 1.21 shown earlier).
2. Move the cursor over the Modify panel. The panel and panel title bar
change from light gray to white to indicate that that panel has the
program’s focus, while the tool or feature directly beneath the cursor
turns blue.
3. Pause the cursor over the Bring To Front button to expose the but-
ton’s tooltip, as shown at the top of Figure 1.24. This tooltip displays
the name of the tool, a brief description of its function, the command-
line equivalent of clicking the tool, and instructions to click the F1
key to open the AutoCAD Help file to the current tool’s Help page.
FIGURE 1.24: The tooltip for the Bring To Front command (top) and the
extended tooltip (bottom)
Chapter 1 • Getting to Know AutoCAD20
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