How to reduce the size of quick access toolbar icons? (Office 2016)

Help Required.  Would someone kindly put me right?

We have posters: -

• Including myself complaining that Excel 2016 QAT is a major problem. [Ralph Bergin, Sep 24th 2015 among many others].
• Saying that 2016 QAT has been been returned to 2013 QAT functionality and is being rolled out progressively.  [Rohn007, Jan 23rd 2016].
• Like me, who have Office 365, updating every day, in the hope that we can obtain the fix. [Sandra Buskey, Jan 15th 2016].
• Now we have posters complaining that 2016 QAT is a disaster and should be fixed (as if the fix hasn't happened)  [Very eloquently put by LauraChalifoux, Jan 26th 2016].

Please tell me: -

• Has 2016 QAT been returned to 2013 functionality or not?
• If yes, when can I, as an Office 365 user, get access to it?
• If it hasn't been fixed yet, when will it be and when can I get it?

I've been a User Experience Designer for the last 15 years. I cannot imagine what planet the people who made this decision are from -- whether is was the UX team, or key decision-maker(s) from another team or upper management.

The whole point of the QAT is to give users control of the UI so that the program best fits their needs.  Never mind what their needs are; the point is allowing user control.  The QAT has been around for years; the interface is well designed; and the feature has worked just fine in all that time.  As far as I know, there have been no significant complaints about the QAT until this release.

The QAT in Office 2016 has REMOVED control from users; clearly, this is a big problem for many of us, and it affects all of the Office 2016 software programs. 

I'm sorry, but I've been around for in software development for over 3 decades - I remember Windows 0.9 - and this is a Bug; it is not a Feature.

If, as others have mentioned, the larger icons in the QAT are intended to make Office 2016 easier to use on touch screens, that is absolutely no excuse for imposing such disastrous consequences on other users. Especially when there are completely obvious solutions to accommodate both users who use touch screens, and those who do not.

For example:

• Make the large/small QAT icon sizes an OPTION, so that ALL users can have control to make the QAT work most effectively for their needs, in various situations.
• There could be three options for the user's convenience:
  • Large icons always
  • Small icons always
  • Automatically use large icons when touch screen display is detected; otherwise, show small icons

How difficult is that? I just do not understand how there could possibly be such a disconnect with the usage patterns of such a substantial portion of the user base.

If you have not already seen it, MS is pushing out a fix to 365 to return the QAT buttons to 2013 size.  If you don't already have it, just force a manual update of your 365.  I don't know if the fix applies to standalone 2016 also.

As well, in some of the questions, people noted that switching from Mouse to Touch to Mouse mode does not always return the QAT buttons to original Mouse size.  This next link has a potential simple fix:

Partial fix QAT buttons not resizing down fully- Change DPI Scaling

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2010-customize/huge-ribbon-and-icon-size-in-microsoft-office/32fabc50-d6a4-44f5-ae87-b1c332813d22

In addition to the link above to an unofficial site, MS also has an official page that lists work being done on Office 365:

Office 365 Roadmap - Fasttrack

http://fasttrack.office.com/roadmap

The Office 365 Roadmap lists updates that are currently planned for applicable subscribers. Updates are at various stages from being in development to rolling-out to customers to being generally available for applicable customers world-wide.

NOTE: there are 3 sets of filters available.

In the Black bar the the first set allows you to select the category: Launched, Rolling out, In development, Cancelled, Previously released

Immediately below that there are check boxes for features Updated and/or Added within last 30 days

Finally, if you click on the “Filters” button, a section will expand to allow you to pick specific apps, services or platforms affected by the changes.

. 

And just give us the darn ribbon icons on the QAT.  How hard can that be?  I despise the arrogance of the touchie crew destroying what was a fine interface.  You realize that us desktop users comprise the majority of users, no?

It appears that the softie, Analiese, has not been following this question.  She posted a notice a couple of days ago that MS has created an update to partially fix the problem.  They have returned the spacing back to 2013 levels.  Better, but not great.  So do a manual update of Office to see if you can pick up this fix:

Fix Released

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2016-word/word-2016-styles-pane-corrupted/be2f03ff-c127-45e2-89b9-ce4806ca37ee?page=5&msgId=500f9529-88aa-4868-8202-3588966e3e44

<snip>

The Styles pane issue has been fixed in update 6366.2056, which is rolling out now to Office 365 consumer subscribers.

<EDIT: Oops, wrong discussion, that was about the style pane.  But anyway, there was also a second update released for the QAT problem, so doing a manual update is still the fix for this problem to. Sorry, I don't have a version number.>

If you don't see it yet, you can force the update by following these steps:

1. Open any Office application and choose File > Account. (If you're using Outlook, choose File > Office Account.)
2. Under Product Information, choose Update Options> Update Now.

If you're still experiencing issues after this update, please let us know (best to start a new thread).

<snip>

Even if you try to force the update as Anneliese described, you may not get it yet.

To users, be aware that the fix is being rolled out slowly, "in a controlled fashion".  So, if you don't get it the first time you try to "update now", wait a day (or at least several hours) then try again until you do get it.

*******************************

It seems that they have a "vision" that touch screens are going to take over the world. 

While I agree that may happen, I think it is still at least 2 computer generations out. Until then, I agree that this "vision" they are chasing is a phantom,  sign of tunnel vision, not foresight.