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?

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.

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. .

I found the issue with the large ribbon. Its in the "touch mouse" settings. Make that change and you will be happy. Cheers !

And in my case, after tearing my hair out the other day, also is the huge ribbon. When did that change? On my desktop, I have letters and invoices saved so i can find them easily. Never had a problem clicking from the desktop and Word opens up. Now, if I do that, the ribbon covers the top part of my documents, whether it’s the letter or invoices, and renders them useless. I cannot click in my document or, in the case of the invoice, change or fill in my fees. Actually, when I click on the document, it’s 4 or 5 lines above where I need to fill in data. So odd. So now after searching, I turned on the Touch/Mouse Mode from the Quick Access bar, enabled mouse mode, and it made very little difference. My documents are still hidden on the top part when accessing from my desktop only, not if I open them directly from the Word app. My solution, after hours of frustration, is to just hide the ribbon bar or just show the tabs only. And it did not affect my HP Laptop. Maybe it was the June 9th Windows 10 Update that killed everything. Had to be.

Uninstall the most recent Windows update to see if it makes a difference on your system.

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

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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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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Anonymous

2021-06-10T18:28:16+00:00

I found the issue with the large ribbon.

Its in the "touch mouse" settings.

Make that change and you will be happy.

Cheers !
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Anonymous

2021-06-16T16:13:15+00:00

And in my case, after tearing my hair out the other day, also is the huge ribbon. When did that change? On my desktop, I have letters and invoices saved so i can find them easily. Never had a problem clicking from the desktop and Word opens up. Now, if I do that, the ribbon covers the top part of my documents, whether it’s the letter or invoices, and renders them useless. I cannot click in my document or, in the case of the invoice, change or fill in my fees. Actually, when I click on the document, it’s 4 or 5 lines above where I need to fill in data. So odd.

So now after searching, I turned on the Touch/Mouse Mode from the Quick Access bar, enabled mouse mode, and it made very little difference. My documents are still hidden on the top part when accessing from my desktop only, not if I open them directly from the Word app.

My solution, after hours of frustration, is to just hide the ribbon bar or just show the tabs only. And it did not affect my HP Laptop. Maybe it was the June 9th Windows 10 Update that killed everything. Had to be.
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Stefan Blom 352.1K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator

2021-06-17T08:25:43+00:00

Uninstall the most recent Windows update to see if it makes a difference on your system.
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