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?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Install, redeem, activate | For home | Other

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  1. Anonymous
    2021-06-08T00:18:39+00:00

    If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

    The fundamental problem is that MS is "improving" Office to work better on small screens like phones and tablets. But they keep forgetting their installed user base on desktop computers, where the screens are getting larger!

    .

    Unfortunately instead of programming in a reliable check for screen size and resolution, MS programs for the lowest common denominator.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-06-07T21:20:11+00:00

    The only suitable resolution which I found is to install Microsoft 2019 over the existing installation. That done the ridiculously overszed menu bar items and the tool bar items have been greatly reduced.

    I would image that reverting to Microsoft Office 2016 would achieve the same result, but with the loss of any functionality that was added to 2019.

    I wish MS would at least test products before they venture into making changes that probablly were't wanted or needed anyway. Come on MS... put out beta releases to find the problems before everyone has to go through trying to resolve a problem that shouldn't even exist. "Improvements" are not always improvements and they can cost users hours and hours of valuable time trying to find an answer.

    If it aiin't broke, don't fix it.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-06-05T21:45:08+00:00

    Angophora, you saved my life, Thank you

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  4. Anonymous
    2021-05-18T21:55:42+00:00

    I suggest going into your Advanced Scaling Settings and changing it to 200 and hit "Apply."   Then restart your computer.   Change the size back to 100%.  Then restart again if needed.  It should work.

    Microsoft,

          Somehow this changed within the last week.  I have attached a screenshot.  The toolbar, ribbon & sheet tab are too large.

    Image

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  5. Anonymous
    2021-05-18T18:56:20+00:00

    Microsoft,

          Somehow this changed within the last week.  I have attached a screenshot.  The toolbar, ribbon & sheet tab are too large.

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