{"id":71319,"date":"2014-08-21T16:00:13","date_gmt":"2014-08-21T14:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/onsoftware.en.softonic.com\/?p=71319"},"modified":"2025-07-02T00:31:42","modified_gmt":"2025-07-02T07:31:42","slug":"office-tip-restore-or-minimize-the-ribbon-interface-in-word-and-excel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/office-tip-restore-or-minimize-the-ribbon-interface-in-word-and-excel\/","title":{"rendered":"Office Tip: Restore or minimize the Ribbon interface in Word and Excel"},"content":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Office<\/a> remains one of the most popular productivity suites<\/strong> on the market. It contains almost every program you’d ever need to finish any paper, project, or assignment: Word<\/a>,\u00a0PowerPoint<\/a>, and\u00a0Excel<\/a> are all fair game. But one of the first things you might have trouble navigating is the Ribbon interface<\/strong>. The toolbar appears in all Microsoft Office apps, but can sometimes be hard to master. Here, I’ll show you how it works.<\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/p>\n

The Ribbon interface, a toolbar located above the document, sometimes acts a little funny: it’ll disappear, reappear, or maybe only display the names of each section.<\/p>\n

Depending on your preferences, here’s how to minimize or restore the Ribbon interface.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Ribbon Display Options<\/h3>\n

To minimize the Ribbon, restore it, or change it to a different view, there is one button you need to know: Ribbon Display Options<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/p>\n

2. Choose one of three options<\/h3>\n

There are three available options<\/strong> for the view of the Ribbon interface, depending on how you want to see it.<\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/p>\n

Auto-hide Ribbon<\/em> is a full-screen view where the Ribbon is completely hidden. To see the options, you’re forced to click the top of the screen before you can do anything. This view is not for beginners<\/strong>, but better suited for keyboard shortcuts in Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n

\"Auto<\/p>\n

The second option<\/strong>, Show Tabs<\/em>, actually hides the ribbon from view. Only the titles of the menus remain visible on the screen. To see more options, you need to click on the tab to show all of its commands.<\/p>\n

\"RibbonThe last option, Show Tabs and Commands<\/em>, provides an extensive\u00a0view<\/strong> of the Ribbon. I strongly advise using this view, unless your PC screen is really tiny. In that case, the second option would probably be better.<\/p>\n

\"Show<\/p>\n

3. Finding the Ribbon interface<\/h3>\n

If you’re having trouble getting out of Word or Excel’s full screen<\/strong> display, the view is probably set to Auto-hide Ribbon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To make it reappear, go to the top of the screen. Click on the colored bar that appears transparent under the cursor, and the Ribbon interface will pop up again. By clicking on the Ribbon display options<\/em> button, you can find the three view options mentioned above.<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

\"Auto<\/p>\n

4. Restoring the Ribbon interface<\/h3>\n

More than once, I’ve accidentally clicked on the small arrow that minimizes the interface, located at the bottom right of the Ribbon. The Ribbon disappears, and it’s impossible to find a similar arrow to restore the Ribbon interface.<\/p>\n

\"Ribbon<\/a><\/p>\n

The solution? The Ribbon display options<\/em> button once again. To recap, you need to go through the Ribbon display options<\/em> button, and select Show Tabs and Commands<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Navigating the Ribbon interface? One less problem in Microsoft Office.<\/p>\n

In the next article in this Office Tips series<\/strong>, I’ll show you how to open multiple documents<\/strong> in one window using Word and Excel.<\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/h3>\n

How to restart Windows Explorer if it isn’t responding<\/a><\/p>\n

How to automatically update drivers in Windows 7 and 8<\/a><\/p>\n

How to add tabs to Windows Explorer<\/a><\/p>\n

How to use screensavers as animated wallpaper<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow me on Twitter:<\/em> @bbrassart<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Microsoft Office remains one of the most popular productivity suites on the market. It contains almost every program you’d ever need to finish any paper, project, or assignment: Word,\u00a0PowerPoint, and\u00a0Excel are all fair game. But one of the first things you might have trouble navigating is the Ribbon interface. The toolbar appears in all Microsoft … Continue reading “Office Tip: Restore or minimize the Ribbon interface in Word and Excel”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2043,"featured_media":71396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":1},"categories":[2441],"tags":[1060],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-71319","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to","tag-microsoft-office"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2043"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=71319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":330304,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71319\/revisions\/330304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/71396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=71319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=71319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=71319"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=71319"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=71319"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=71319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}