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

Anonymous
2019-09-26T00:38:24+00:00

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?

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-11-23T17:00:00+00:00

    I am having the same issue.  Our IT support team replaced my Dell 5590 with a 5570.  It's the only change and now my ribbon is way too large on all MS Office applications.  I suspect the support specialist may not be experiencing the same issue due to using a different model computer than the inquirer.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-11-05T17:02:23+00:00

    aw... none of my pictures made it...

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-11-05T17:01:50+00:00

    Very bottom of the outlook screen, click Display Settings

    Click Optimize for compatibility

    BAM! Look how small!!

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-10-18T20:16:45+00:00

    Thankyou so much, I have been so frustrated with almost half of my laptop screen taken up with the ribbon!

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-10-18T04:56:59+00:00

    OK I HAVE THE ANSWER! Go to the upper right hand part of your browser and there is a grey circle with a head in it. Right next to it are three little dots ...

    click the dots and on the drop down menu there is something that says ZOOM. Click the minus sign to get the ribbon to shrink.

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