Tip of the week # 479
20 March 2016


Bring back the menu bar (Internet Explorer and Firefox) *

Since 1995 Microsoft has developed eleven versions of Internet Explorer. Back in October 2006 they released version 7 and decided to hide the classic menu bar, normally located at the top of the window. They did this to increase the page viewing space. Great, but there might be times you want to use the File, Edit, View, Favorites, Tools or Help menus, if only to find out what version you are using. (Select About Internet Explorer from the Help menu.)

Here's how:

  1. Launch Internet Explorer, as normal
  2. Press the ALT key (next to your spacebar)

When you press ALT, the menu bar will be displayed temporarily. If you prefer to have the Menu bar displayed by default you can do the following:

  1. Launch Internet Explorer, as normal
  2. Press ALT
  3. Press V (for View)
  4. Press T (for Toolbars)
  5. Press M (for Menu bar)

Oh, and as the title of the tip implies . . . this works for Firefox too. Google Chrome, however, has no menu bar; actions such as Edit and Help can be found when you click on the button in the upper-right corner of the screen. The button looks like a wrench or three horizontal lines, depending on what version of Chrome you use (which you can find out when you click on the button ;)

To find out how to quickly hide toolbars to increase page viewing space see tip 173 (tip_173.html).


* Unless stated otherwise, these tips were written for Microsoft Office 2010.