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Home > Jan's CompLit 101 > Working with Words > Word Basics > Interface > Task Pane
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    Interface: Task Pane

What shows in a task pane depends on which one it is and what you are doing. Its purpose is to give you easy access to frequently used commands related to what you are doing. There are fewer task panes now that in early versions of Office.

A task pane might display docked at either the right or left of your document, or as a floating pane.

Task pnae: Styles (Word 2010) Task pane: Clipboard (Word 2010) Task pane: Clip Art - floating (Word 2010)

Task panes: docked right, docked left, floating

Managing a Task Pane

Open a task pane

Some panes open with the Dialog Launcher button Button: Dialog Launcher (Word 2010) Button: Dialog Launcher (Word 2013) at the bottom right of a group on a ribbon tab. Others open from a button on the ribbon or a choice in a drop list.

Hide pane

Pane: Close button (Word 2010)You can hide a Task Pane by clicking Button: Close its Close button at the top right of the pane (NOT of the window!)

Move a pane

You don't have to leave a pane in its default location. The new position will be remembered for the next time that pane opens.

Dock: Drag the pane's title bar to the window's edge. Once about half the pane is over the edge, the pane will snap into place.

Float: Drag the pane's title bar toward the middle of the document until it moves away from the window edge.

Resize pane

For a docked pane, you can drag the free edge to make the pane wider or narrower.

For a floating pane, you can resize the pane like any other window.