Cadalyst contributing editor Bill Fane sends along his tips For setting up the Ribbon in your workspace. He gives us a few ways to untie the Ribbon from the default position.

1. Right-click in the tab bar at the top of the ribbon and then click on Close in the context menu that appears.

2. Alternately, if you click on Undock in the context menu then the ribbon becomes a floating tool palette that can be:

• a) moved anywhere on screen.
• b) set to Auto-hide so it reduces to just a bar until you hover the cursor over it.
• c) stretched in either direction to show more or less of the content.
• d) docked at either side of the screen, or back at the top again.
• e) closed by clicking on the usual X button.

"In any case, if you close it, then you must enter the Ribbon command at the keyboard to bring it back.

"Here is another related tip; you can customize the Quick Access toolbar to add the Ribbonclose and Ribbon commands."

Notes from Cadalyst Tip Patrol: There are many ways to adjust the Ribbon’s look. You can pull out panels so that they work similarly to toolbars. They can always be re-docked to the Ribbon. If you want to use the Ribbon, but miss the toolbars, you can have both with just the Ribbon. Pull out the panels you use the most just like toolbars. They don’t dock like the Ribbon or the toolbars do, but you can change their orientation (horizontal or vertical). The pulled out panels are easily returned to their place on the ribbon by clicking Return Panels to Ribbon button on the panel.