Well, if there's nothing related to a context tab selected, it would be inappropriate for the program to give you access to those options. If you delete the object, what use are those options to you? You can't apply them to anything unless you create a new object. In reality, this is no different to the graying-out of various options that used to happen with toolbars and still happens with ribbon items at various times.



What you seem to be demanding - and no office program has ever allowed - is unfettered access to any and all options regardless of whether they can be used. What good do you suppose it would be having the ribbon display and give access to the resizing options on the drawing tools tab, for example, when there's nothing they can be applied to? Are you saying office should always leave the last tab visible and selected in such cases? Microsoft would be justly criticized if it allowed this. the whole reason for going to the Ribbon interface was to help users by not even displaying options that are inappropriate in a given context; that was one of the problems of the old toolbars, even though various options might be grayed out, they were still always visible. Users would then regularly complain the apps wouldn't let them use options they could see on the toolbars.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Hi macropod. Once again you are absolutely right but I question to what degree therefore, I made myself clear and am wondering how I could reword this. OK so I go to File tab and then click on Options and then Print. After which having looked at my printed copy I would now like to save it as something. But as is, after printing I now must go back to the File tab since Word decided I have finished doing what I was doing there, which is not the case.
Or in my original case I select a text style, take a look at how it looks like and then see it is not what I like and would like to try something else. Certainly, people don't make such choices knowing from the start exactly what they would like to see, or want to try/see different results just to compare, right? So in such cases, in my humble opinion, it is not like greying out, for that implies not being able to do 'X' thing with what's in front of you. I want to do 'Y' thing with what's in front of me and I am able to do it since my present tab allows me to do so but why should I only do it once?
I think there is something I am not understanding though and here perhaps is the problem--you are speaking an advanced 'language' I am not familiar with even though it seems to be the same 'language.' IF for example I highlight a word and then go to the Page Layout tab and make a change and then do a Ctrl-Z it still stays on the same page. SO why here but not in other places like the 2 I mentioned? hence my thinking I may not be fully understanding what you are saying (or I am not explaining myself well--making you think I am.)