You may have noticed that Office 2013's ribbon bar labels appear in all caps. If you find this annoying, here's how to change it.

The ribbon is probably one of the most highly polarising UI decisions Microsoft has ever made (well, that and the start screen), and whether you love it or hate it, one great thing about the Windows 8 Consumer Preview is that people are already working on tools to tweak the upcoming OS so it works better for them. Ribbon Disabler, a free utility that permanently removes the ribbon from all Explorer windows, is one of those tools.

Whenever I get on a new Windows machine, the first thing I do is switch off the annoying defaults which hide file extensions and conceal hidden files in Explorer. Fortunately, that task is a lot easier on Windows 8.

One of the most common complaints about the Explorer interface in Windows 7 was that it dumped the 'up' button used to move up in the directory structure. The good news is that it's returning in Windows 8. The perhaps more controversial news is that Microsoft will achieve that by using the often controversial Ribbon interface.

We've told you before about tactics to adjust to the Ribbon interface in Microsoft Office, including customising the Ribbon to make finding the features you want more straightforward. A new downloadable tab called 'Favorites' groups together the most commonly-accessed features according to Microsoft's analysis of user click patterns, which might represent a good starting point for your own customisations.

First, a good taste warning: this post mentions Clippy, the irritating helper paperclip that Microsoft thankfully dumped from Office back in Office XP. If the mere mention of that digital excrescence doesn't send you running to the hills screaming for gin, then you might want to check out Ribbon Hero 2, a game designed to teach migrating Office users how to use the Ribbon found in Office 2007 and Office 2010.

It's not news to Lifehacker regulars that we have very mixed feelings about the Ribbon interface used in Office -- there's a demonstrable lack of consistency in how it places some options, for starters. However, it's worth remembering that the ability to customise the Ribbon in Office 2010 means you can solve some of those problems.

Upgraded to the 2010 version of Project and can't find the familiar camera icon for converting Gantt charts into images? Tech blogger Nathan Gropman points out that it has been replaced with a 'Copy Picture' icon on the Task tab -- a good example of how the Ribbon isn't always intuitive.

The ribbon is apparently here to stay in Office, so your best bet is to get used to working with it. However, while adding the ribbon was one of the key features across the board in Office 2010, there is one application where it is minimised by default: OneNote.

When Microsoft introduced the ribbon interface, it offered up a series of guides showing where familiar commands had moved to. The ribbon is even more pervasive in Office 2010, so Microsoft has updated those guides ahead of the newest suite's release.

We've told you in the past about the mapping workbooks that explain where features got hidden when Microsoft adopted the sometimes confusing Ribbon interface. There's now a similar tool for SharePoint 2010, which has also added the ribbon interface.

When Microsoft introduced the Ribbon interface in Office 2007, a key argument for the radical switch was that it would be easier to use. That always seemed like a suspicious claim relative to the millions of existing Office users, and now Microsoft has been forced to concede that throwing out everything might not have been the best move.

Our recent roundup of how to deal with the Office ribbon offered lots of hints on how to make the most of Microsoft's polarising interface, but didn't mention one useful trick: using Control-F1 to hide the ribbon from sight. The same shortcut also restores it.

Microsoft's Ribbon interface represents a radical change from standard menu-based applications, but if you're a regular user of Office 2007, you need to come to grips with it. Here's some handy strategies to make the transition easier.

Confused by Office 2007's Ribbon? Some free spreadsheet guides might help you untangle the mess.

Windows only (with PowerPoint 2007): SlideShare, the YouTube-style sharing and embedding service for presentations, has released an Office 2007 plug-in that lets creators directly upload and control web presentations from inside PowerPoint. The plug-in, which requires the very latest .NET Framework 3.5 SP1, adds basic "Open/Publish/Manage" buttons to a new SlideShare tab, as well as buttons for finding related material on the sharing site (for design inspiration, perhaps?) and letting you see how many co-workers, or general surfers, have checked out your shared stuff. Check out SlideShare's own embedded presentation on installing and using the toolbar, and a video demonstration of its features, below.

Windows only: Lots of folks rave about Microsoft Office 2007's ribbon interface, but now you can have it for free in Microsoft Word's younger sibling, WordPad. A developer over at deviantART—not Microsoft, mind you—has released "Wordpad 2009," which offers multiple documents in tabs, Windows 7 icons, and yes, the ribbon interface. While this is yet another way you can get Windows 7 features for free right now, Wordpad 2009 doesn't look exactly like Windows 7's WordPad. Check out the difference.