Tip of the week # 579
31 July 2019


Collapse and expand the ribbon (Microsoft Office) *

In Microsoft Office commands related to working with your documents appear as buttons on tabs that make up what is called the ribbon.

Back in 2008 I wrote a tip about minimizing the ribbon to create space and see more of the document you are working on. While the ribbon is minimized, you can click any tab to expand it temporarily to find the commands you need to complete a task.

Both methods I wrote about at the time still work, but as Microsoft got rid of the tiny downward-pointing arrow at the far right of the ribbon in version 2016 I thought I'd dust off the tip and give a third way to hide and unhide the ribbon.

Here's how:

  1. Double-click any tab. OR
  2. Press CTRL + F1. OR
  3. Right-click any tab and select/unselect Minimize the Ribbon (version 2010) or Collapse the Ribbon (version 2016)

This can be particularly helpful in later versions of Excel if you have tiled your worksheets, as they all have their own tabs and ribbons, taking up a lot of space.

With thanks to Tadas for this week's tip inspiration.

Related tips

Make more space on your screen - minimize the ribbon - tip_237.php

Tile all worksheets and save the layout - tip_483.php

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