Pictures of microsoft word menu bar

A menu (or drop-down menu) is the way in which actions can be performed.
A toolbar is just a collection of icons that provides a shortcut to using the drop-down menu.
Toolbars offer quick shortcuts to commonly used commands.
The image that appears next to a command on a drop-down menu is usually an indication that this command also exists on a toolbar.
Word contains over fifty pre-defined toolbars and over forty pre-defined shortcut menus.
You can re-position any of the toolbars using the mouse and they can be docked to any side of the application window.
To quickly display another toolbar select (View > Toolbars) and select the toolbar from the submenu.

The ticks show all the toolbars that are currently displayed on the screen.
If the toolbar you want to display is not there you, press the Customise button at the bottom and select the Toolbars tab to get a full list.
When you first open Word there are two toolbars displayed, the Standard and Format