Customize Ribbon Size to Make it Smaller

Anonymous
2013-08-26T01:47:56+00:00

I'm extremely disappointed that Microsoft has made the ribbon so HUGE and does not appear to offer any way of customizing its size other than completely collapsing it.  Between the menu bar, the ribbon, the formula bar, etc. almost HALF of the screen real estate is non-content. Microsoft has it backwards, thinking the more screen space should go to the user interface rather than the content. This is maddening, and it's extremely frustrating that Microsoft doesn't allow me to customize the size of the ribbon to maximize content. Does anyone know of a work around?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Kevin Jones 7,265 Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2013-08-26T02:38:39+00:00

    There are Add-Ins that will display classic menus in 2013 such as this one:

    Title: Show Classic Menus and Toolbars on Ribbon of Excel 2010 and 2013

    Link: http://www.addintools.com/office2010/excel/

    Have you tried increasing your monitor resolution?

    Kevin

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-03-03T11:13:45+00:00

    New office is also designed for touch screens so simply easy to change the mode as below:

    1. On the Quick Access Toolbar, Click the dropdown to edit it.
    2. Click Touch/Mouse mode
    3. Click the new icon to switch between 'Mouse mode' and 'Touch mode'

    Good luck

    Raza

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-08T23:57:23+00:00

    This helped me: https://superuser.com/questions/991252/ribbon-size-in-office-2016. It doesn't let you have a lot of customization, but it does allow you to toggle between a smaller ribbon and a larger ribbon. The smaller one is set for "mouse mode" while the larger one is set for "touch mode." Somehow my Word switched to the larger touch mode, which is why I started searching the web for ways to customize the ribbon size. Switching it back to the smaller mouse mode made things more like I'm used to, with a smaller ribbon (measuring top to bottom) and more useful space for my work.

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-12-26T11:20:51+00:00

    Welcome to the Amazing Microsoft Customer Service experience! (Yes the sarcasm should be dripping from this like its been drenched by a wale at Sea World.

    This thread has been here since August 25th, 2013 and it is now December 26th, 2015 and it remains unfixed.

    1. We should not have to change windows to change the ribbon size in Office products.
    2. We should not require an addin to change the ribbon size (and I'm not seeing were any addins have worked anyway).

    Here's the question:

    How many Thousands of complaints before Microsoft will move off their lazy rear ends and actually fix something?

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-07-20T17:09:06+00:00

    I don't see any icon that looks like a finger pointing. What do you mean by "top menu/task bar"? The Home ribbon? The View ribbon?

    When I auto-hide the ribbon, and I click on a tab, the ribbon which displays is exactly what I want. If I try to pin the ribbon again, I get the gigantasaurus version of the ribbon. So where is the icon which looks like a finger pointing?

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