Article ID: 816949 - Last Review: November 23, 2006 - Revision: 2.7

Description of the Getting Started task pane in Office 2003

View products that this article applies to.

System TipThis article applies to a different operating system than the one you are using. Article content that may not be relevant to you is disabled.

SUMMARY

By default, the Getting Started (Home) task pane appears when you start a Microsoft Office 2003 program listed in the Applies to section. This task pane provides a quick way to open a specific document, create a new document, or find out more about the program.

Many of the services available on the Office Online and Microsoft.com Web sites can also be accessed through the Getting Started task pane. Additionally, local resources can be accessed through the Getting Started task pane.

Back to the top

MORE INFORMATION

By default, the Getting Started task pane is available when you start a Microsoft Office 2003 program that is listed in the "Applies To" section. Task panes can be turned off at startup so that no task pane is visible when you start the program. This setting is program-specific and does not affect the task pane startup in the other Office programs.

To turn off the task panes in a program, follow these steps:

Start the program.
On the Tools menu, click Options.
On the View tab, click to clear the Startup Task Pane check box, and then click OK.

Note: In FrontPage, the Startup Task Pane check box is on the General tab.

After you turn off the task panes in an Office program, the task panes are still easily available. For example, the task panes are available when you do either of the following:

When you perform certain tasks in the Office program, the appropriate task pane will appear.

-or-
When you click Task Pane on the View menu, or you press CTRL+F1.

Back to the top

To Create a New File

To create a new file in an Office program using the Getting Started task pane, do one of the following:

In Excel, click Create a new workbook.
In FrontPage, click Create a new page or site.
In PowerPoint, click Create a new presentation.
In Word, click Create a new document.

Back to the top

To Add a New File or Template to the Getting Started Task Pane

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs.
If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Advisory Services. For more information, visit these Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft Certified Partners - https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104 (https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104)

Microsoft Advisory Services - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice)

For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms) You can modify the Getting Started task pane to include a link to the documents or files that you use most frequently. To do this, you must use a Visual Basic for Applications macro.

   Sub AddNewDocToTaskPane()

      'Replace the FileName:= "C:\NewDocument.doc" with the path of the
      'file you want to appear on the Getting Started task pane.

      'Replace the DisplayName:="Look! My New Document option" with the
      'text you want to show on the Getting Started task pane.

      Application.NewDocument.Add FileName:="C:\NewDocument.doc", _
         Section:=msoStart, DisplayName:="Look! My New Document option"

         With Application.CommandBars("Task Pane")
            .Visible = False
            .Visible = True
         End With

   End Sub

Back to the top