How do I keep the ribbon always visible?

Anonymous
2011-03-16T22:54:08+00:00

When I am in a Word doc and want to, e.g., change the font, I have to click on Home, then font size.  Afterwards, the ribbon disappears.  If I want to do any other formatting, I again have to click on Home, etc.

When I first started using Word in 2010 Starter, the ribbon was always visible; I would like that again.

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2011-03-17T00:38:03+00:00

The ribbon is "minimized". There are three ways to "unminimize" it:

  • Press Ctrl+F1 (this is an on/off toggle).
  • Double-click any of the tabs (Home, View, etc.).
  • Right-click any of the tabs or the Quick Access Toolbar and uncheck "Minimize the ribbon". Edit: In Office 2013, there's an additional way. The icon (shown below by the red box) in the top right corner of the window has a dropdown menu. Click Show Tabs and Commands to see the full ribbon. The Auto-hide Ribbon choice is new -- it hides both the tabs and the buttons to give you the most reading/editing space for the document. To show the ribbon temporarily, click once at the top of the window. As soon as you click a button on the ribbon, it will hide again. To turn this off, click the icon and click one of the other two choices.

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Jay Freedman 208.3K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
2012-03-27T20:23:12+00:00

If you expand the ribbon by any of the methods I listed above, it should stay expanded until you do the reverse of one of those methods. The state should stay unchanged even if you shut down and restart Word or Windows.

If that isn't happening for you, there are a couple of possibilities: There may be an add-in that's improperly changing the ribbon's visibility, or there may be a problem in the registry that prevents the ribbon's state from being saved. Neither of these is very likely.

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  1. Charles Kenyon 171.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2015-09-28T09:51:34+00:00

    You want to be able to change the functioning of a huge program without knowing programming. We all have things we want, we don't always get them. (Sounds like a Rolling Stones song...)

    This forum is not the complaint window. It is a place to get help from experienced fellow users. If you want that help, lose a bit of the attitude.

    If you've read through this entire thread, you know that you can set it the way you want. See Jay Freedman's post marked as an answer. It will remain that way until you change it again. This is true unless there is some Add-In changing it. If you find that it is not the case for you, write back and someone will try to help you step through what can be done.

    The way it works now is in response to user complaints about how much screen space was being taken up and wanting to give the user (you and me) more control over that.

    I do understand and feel with you your frustration at wanting to talk with someone at Microsoft and vent.

    Top-right of window by the Close X is a drop-down arrow dealing with the Ribbon - Word 2013+ only. You need to click on Show Tabs and Commands.

    The Ribbons of Microsoft Word 2007-2013

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-28T05:37:46+00:00

    I read the entire thread and agree with some.  I want the ribb0n visible ALL THE TIME, without having to do a Ph D in programming first.  I dislike the idea of MS deciding how much of my monitor I want to use, I did find a page that seems to have the coding necessary to make the ribbon a simple tool and not an irritation.,  https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.tools.ribbon.aspx but I am not into programming or in favor of messing around with the Registry.  Is this a PERSONAL COMPUTER or one controlled by MS?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-08-31T10:43:11+00:00

    Nice... very easy.  Thank you!

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