How Can I Reduce Size of Ribbon Icons & Text in Office 365 / 2016?

Since MS Office was updated earlier in 2019 (for me) I have had this stupidly sized ribbon that takes up about double the screen area compared to previous iterations of Office.  I want to reduce it, so do many other people it seems but there seems to be no satisfactory method.

Before answering, please read the following;

1. I do not want to HIDE the ribbon, I just want the icons / text to be smaller.
2. I know about the MOUSE / TOUCH setting.  It is already on Mouse and the ribbon is still far too big.
3. Monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080 on my laptop and secondary screen, there is no option to change monitors.
4. Text size in the OS is currently set to the recommended 125%  I do not want to change this as I do not want to upset any of my other (many) applications.
5. This is only a problem caused by the update in MS Office, no other apps are affected.

Will someone at Microsoft please explain how to reduce the childish looking icons and text in the MS Office Suite so that I can recover screen space?

If those crowded MS could help anyone themselves would be first in line. 

I had the same problem and it took forever to get an answer, but someone replied that sometimes the settings get "stuck" so what you have to do is change the size of the text to something huge like 200% with the "Advanced scaling settings", restart your computer and then change it back to what you want (100% or 125%)).  Restart your computer again if you need to.   It worked like a charm for me.  Hopefully it will work for you as well.

Very bottom of the outlook screen, click Display Settings

Click Optimize for compatibility

BAM! Look how small!!

So, that doesnt help. It's actually the size of the text- the font is enormous- which takes up all the room. so- if you know how to change the font... that might be more helpful.

I have the finger pointer on the tool bar already, I changed it between touch/mouse mode, it still is huge. what is the next step if thats not it?

I have been good UNTIL the update that took place this week.  As you are stating, when clicking on the Mouse/Touch icon and changing to Mouse, makes it BIGGER than it currently is.  This is taking up too much landscape at the top for simple icons.  I don't need them this large.  Isn't that why they made the dropdowns, to require less space?  This is only an issue in MS Office products!  Adobe or other software was not affected.

Craig