Learning Basic Commands to Get Started - AutoCAD 2011 and AutoCAD LT 2011: No Experience Required - page 40

As shown in Figure 2.4, once you no longer have any drawings open, your
drawing area will be a gradient gray and blank with no crosshair cursor; the
Ribbon will disappear and only three buttons will remain in the Quick Access
toolbar area on the left side of the title bar (along with the three informational
buttons in the Quick Access toolbar).
FiGuRE 2.4 The AutoCAD user interface without any drawings open.
Now follow these steps to begin using the LINE command:
1. Click the New button at the left end of the Quick Access toolbar. In
the Select Template dialog box, select the acad.dwt file, if it's not
already selected, and click Open, as shown in Figure 2.5. The menus,
crosshair cursor, and toolbars return, and you now have a blank
drawing in the drawing area.
NOTE DWt files are drawing templates with several parameters, such
as dimension styles, layers, plotting settings, and more already set.
2. On the left side, some of the tools, such as Object Snap and Dynamic
Input, are turned on while others remain off. Make sure that Polar
Tracking, Object Snap, Object Snap Tracking, Allow/Disallow Dynamic
UCS, and Dynamic Input are turned on and all the others are turned
off. You can identify the buttons by pausing over each and exposing its
tooltip. Your toolbar should look similar to Figure 2.6.