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
    2020-07-25T23:12:20+00:00

    I have exactly the same issue as Lauren - the ribbon is enormous - the magnification is at 100% - the touch/mouse toggle is not working at all. I cant even send a frown because the complaint window extends of the bottom of the screen and I can neither scroll it nor push the window off the top of the screen.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-07-25T23:15:17+00:00

    Here is a screenshot (this is the whole screen).

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-08-21T05:43:20+00:00

    Exactly the same - it solves the problem - bizarre but problem solved.

    Thanks all.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-09-22T16:04:39+00:00

    You also can try this:

    Go to Options and under the General try to play with Optimize for Compatibility

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-09-28T20:15:20+00:00

    We are having users with this same issue now as well. 

    When a different user logs in and opens office, it is fine. 

    But for some users it is blown up. I also notice that on the desktop- the text under the icons is blown up as well.

    This is not a resolution/display issue. 

    No fixes that have been mentioned here have corrected this issue. This lives in the profile somewhere.

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