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; I do not want to HIDE the ribbon, I just want the icons / text to be smaller. I know about the MOUSE / TOUCH setting. It is already on Mouse and the ribbon is still far too big. Monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080 on my laptop and secondary screen, there is no option to change monitors. 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. 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?

I think I've found a solution if you haven't already. I just did this on my computer and it worked. Here's what I did: Right click on the Windows icon in the taskbar. Click on Device Manager. I uninstalled both display adaptors from my PC deleting its driver softwares for it. Part 1: Part 2: I rebooted my PC. And voilà! It fixed my problem. What happened: I like my icons and ribbon small, so when it rebooted, my display resolution was 1920x1080 and the scale size was 125%. As you can see on the image below: After that I put at 100% into my linking and my Ribbon was the way it was supposed to be! Thanks for your response. The other response I received suggested changing the custom scaling to 200%, restarting the computer, resetting it back to 100%, and then restarting. This seemed to work very well and did not require an administrator login to remove and reinstall the devices. Apparently, these settings "get stuck" and needed this to "wake them up."

Indeed, your way is easier!! AHAHHAHAHA... I should've tried that way!! AAHHAHA... Yeah, now that you said I realize it got stuck on 125% when my computer was in 100%. When I shifted to 125% it went to 150%. But... thanks for your easy resolution!

Hi Angophora - This does not fix the issue for me. Microsoft - I have the same issue and scaling does not fix the issue for me. I realize that is the official Microsoft solution, but it does not work nor does it address the issue at the root cause. If scaling were the solution, I could select below 100% - which is not an option. Microsoft needs to come up with actual fix. The icons take up way too much space - especially in Outlook and the new email window.

Hi Angophora - This does not fix the issue for me. Microsoft - I have the same issue and scaling does not fix the issue for me. I realize that is the official Microsoft solution, but it does not work nor does it address the issue at the root cause. If scaling were the solution, I could select below 100% - which is not an option. Microsoft needs to come up with actual fix. The icons take up way too much space - especially in Outlook and the new email window. Did you try changing the custom scaling to 200%, restarting the computer, resetting it back to 100%, and then restarting? Apparently, these settings "get stuck" and needed this to "wake them up." After trying everything else, this worked perfectly for me.

Hi pajbennett Bor, awesome. Superb. Whole world has become mad taking this issue. Technical experts were unable to solve this problem. I uninstalled Office 365 just because of this issue. But when I followed your advise, I realised, how easy was the solution. Awesome man. Thumbs Up.

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

Anonymous

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;

I do not want to HIDE the ribbon, I just want the icons / text to be smaller.
I know about the MOUSE / TOUCH setting. It is already on Mouse and the ribbon is still far too big.
Monitor resolution is 1920 x 1080 on my laptop and secondary screen, there is no option to change monitors.
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.
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?

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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87 answers

Anonymous

2020-12-14T20:49:31+00:00
I think I've found a solution if you haven't already.

I just did this on my computer and it worked.

Here's what I did:

Right click on the Windows icon in the taskbar.

Click on Device Manager.

I uninstalled both display adaptors from my PC deleting its driver softwares for it.

Part 1:

Part 2:

I rebooted my PC. And voilà!

It fixed my problem.

What happened:

I like my icons and ribbon small, so when it rebooted, my display resolution was 1920x1080 and the scale size was 125%. As you can see on the image below:

After that I put at 100% into my linking and my Ribbon was the way it was supposed to be!
Thanks for your response. The other response I received suggested changing the custom scaling to 200%, restarting the computer, resetting it back to 100%, and then restarting. This seemed to work very well and did not require an administrator login to remove and reinstall the devices. Apparently, these settings "get stuck" and needed this to "wake them up."
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Anonymous

2020-12-15T00:35:44+00:00

Indeed, your way is easier!! AHAHHAHAHA... I should've tried that way!! AAHHAHA...

Yeah, now that you said I realize it got stuck on 125% when my computer was in 100%. When I shifted to 125% it went to 150%.

But... thanks for your easy resolution!
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2 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2020-12-17T14:43:49+00:00

Hi Angophora -

This does not fix the issue for me.

Microsoft -

I have the same issue and scaling does not fix the issue for me. I realize that is the official Microsoft solution, but it does not work nor does it address the issue at the root cause. If scaling were the solution, I could select below 100% - which is not an option. Microsoft needs to come up with actual fix.

The icons take up way too much space - especially in Outlook and the new email window.
Was this answer helpful?

2 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2020-12-17T15:06:09+00:00

Hi Angophora -

This does not fix the issue for me.

Microsoft -

I have the same issue and scaling does not fix the issue for me. I realize that is the official Microsoft solution, but it does not work nor does it address the issue at the root cause. If scaling were the solution, I could select below 100% - which is not an option. Microsoft needs to come up with actual fix.

The icons take up way too much space - especially in Outlook and the new email window.

Did you try changing the custom scaling to 200%, restarting the computer, resetting it back to 100%, and then restarting? Apparently, these settings "get stuck" and needed this to "wake them up." After trying everything else, this worked perfectly for me.
Was this answer helpful?

4 people found this answer helpful.

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Anonymous

2021-01-06T02:05:13+00:00

Hi pajbennett

Bor, awesome. Superb. Whole world has become mad taking this issue. Technical experts were unable to solve this problem. I uninstalled Office 365 just because of this issue. But when I followed your advise, I realised, how easy was the solution. Awesome man. Thumbs Up.
Was this answer helpful?

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