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
    2019-12-02T14:22:09+00:00

    Paul,

    I have had the same problem and could not find a setting to change it.

    I run multiple monitors.  I have found that if I move the application with the offending large ribbon size to another monitor, it becomes reasonably sized.  What see a bit crazy is that when I move it back to the original monitor, it retains the reasonably sized ribbon. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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  2. Anonymous
    2019-11-06T15:02:53+00:00

    I have the Same issue that Paul has carefully described.  In previous versions of the Office they have an icon feature setting that made them smaller.  I think this would address the what Paul and I are having trouble with on this Office upgrade.

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  3. Anonymous
    2019-10-16T03:16:48+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for posting in our forum.

    From your post, I understand after updating Office, the size of the ribbon icons and the font has been increased and it is taking the large amount of screen area as compared to the earlier version.

    On my end, I tested with the latest version of Monthly channel 1908 (Build 11929.20300) to check if seem the same behavior, the ribbon icon and the font size looks same as before. Here’s the screenshot for your reference:

    Since you are getting the issue, may I request for the following information to troubleshoot the issue?

    1. Please provide us with a screenshot of Office 365 Product Information. To get this screenshot, open any Office app such as Word or Excel on your system, click File>Account, capture the screenshot of all the information mentioned under Product Information. (Note: please remove any sensitive information from the screenshot such as email address or full name etc.).
    2. Do you see the same behavior in all Office apps?
    3. A full screenshot of a document showing increased ribbon icons and font size.

    Thanks,

    Neha

    I want my ribbon to look like the one in Neha's comment, but mine keeps changing! How do I get mine to look like Neha's and stay that way? Mine changes its appearance SEVERAL times a day in Word, Excel and Outlook!

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  4. Anonymous
    2019-10-03T06:29:38+00:00

    I'd just like to confirm that this DOES NOT answer my problem.

    It's a waste of time talking to anyone Microsoft.

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  5. Anonymous
    2019-09-27T07:08:05+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    Thanks for getting back to us.

    The size of the ribbon icon and visibility of the rows depends on the screen scaling.

    For example, here’s the screenshot of Excel 365 worksheet at 100% (recommended on my system) scaling. From the screenshot, you can see 38 rows are visible and ribbon is smaller.

    Whereas in the screenshot below, only 28 rows are visible and ribbon icons are larger at 125%.

    I understand, in newer version of Excel, ribbon icons are larger, and a smaller number of rows are visible. As Office applications keep updating with new features and functionality, the look also evolves. Thus, changing the size of the ribbon when compared to Office 2010.

    I know you don’t want to change the scale setting on your computer, in this regard, you can consider providing feedback in Excel UserVoice and let the Product Group know your requirement about making the ribbon icon smaller. UserVoice is the best way to give the feedback to Product Group as it’s actively monitored by them and many new features have been implemented from our customers feedback.

    We highly appreciate your understanding.

    Regards,

    Neha

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