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
    2021-06-17T12:46:36+00:00

    Go to System settings

    Select Display

    Under Scale and layout, go to Advanced scaling settings

    In the panel, enter a large number (i.e., 200)

    Click the Sign out now link

    Sign out and sign back in.

    Your display should be particularly large

    Go back to System settings

    Select Display

    Turn off the custom scalingand select 100% if prompted.

    If necessary, sign out and sign in again.

    Your ribbon should look normal now.  The settings were stuck and you just "unstuck" them.

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  2. Anonymous
    2021-06-17T12:45:35+00:00

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

    That won't be necessary.

    Go to System settings

    Select Display

    Under Scale and layout, go to Advanced scaling settings

    In the panel, enter a large number (i.e., 200)

    Click the Sign out now link

    Sign out and sign back in.

    Your display should be particularly large

    Go back to System settings

    Select Display

    Turn off the custom scalingand select 100% if prompted.

    If necessary, sign out and sign in again.

    Your ribbon should look normal now.  The settings were stuck and you just "unstuck" them.

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  3. Anonymous
    2021-04-20T07:47:45+00:00

    Thank you, thank you, thank you, change the scale to 175%, rebooting and changing it back to 100% worked like a treat. What a shame it took ages of trying various Microsoft suggestions before finding this solution. 

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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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