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. Anonymous
    2016-01-29T19:51:22+00:00

    This is extremely important to me...and obviously, it should be maximized most all times when composing. The way it is now, is totally illogical and a pain. At least make it easy for logical users to keep it maximized.

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  2. Charles Kenyon 171.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2016-01-29T23:20:34+00:00

    Read through this thread.

    It is extremely important to some users that they be able to clear the space on their screens.

    I join you in keeping it visible on my screen.

    It is fairly simple to keep it displayed and put it back up if you or someone else manages to take it off your screen.

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  3. Anonymous
    2016-05-31T16:29:48+00:00

    Jay, That is soooo helpful. Thanks a million. It doesn't get much easier than Ctrl+F1.

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