Collapsing the Microsoft Office Ribbon to Get More Space in Your Program

Provided by Molly Pell, Senior Systems Analyst

When moving from earlier versions of Microsoft Office programs (Access, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook) to Office 2007, the new Ribbon can be very difficult to get used to.

A common complaint is that it takes up so much space, leaving you less "real estate" to do your real work. Frankly, we think a ribbon on the side would be much better than the top since most monitors have more space horizontally, rather that vertically. Unfortunately, that’s not an option.

However, did you know that the ribbon can be easily collapsed to give you extra vertical space?

Just double click on any ribbon tab, and it collapses:

When you need to access any of the Ribbon tabs, just click to make the Ribbon drop down, or double-click again to "pin" it back in maximized mode.

You can even customize the Quick Access Toolbar, shown above the Ribbon, for one-click access to your favorite commands.