Can You Eliminate the Mini Toolbar?

[DanS]

Beneath the regular toolbars or docked toolbars, there is a mini-toolbar with five elements: Document Elements, Quick Tables, Charts, SmartArt Graphics, and WordArt. They are things I rarely use. Is there a way to either: 1) remove that toolbar altogether (preferred), or 2) at least change the words to icons so I don't have to read the darn things every time I look at the screen? They junk up the screen and they're wasted space.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Sorry, no. Use Help | Send Feedback in Word to ask for a preference to
hide it entirely, and make the icon suggestion.

It does not show up in Draft View.

In Word | Preferences | Gallery, be sure to UNcheck the "open elements
gallery when app opens" so that it stays collapsed.

 

[DanS]

Thanks DM, I was afraid of that, as I looked everywhere in Help and could find no mention of that toolbar. I sent a note to the Product Suggestion page. For those of us who just write text 99% of the time, that toolbar is useless and, given its location, stuck between the document and the regular toolbars (which you also can't change), it just junks things up.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Personally, I think that if you just write text 99% of the time, there's
no good reason not to use Draft view. Eliminating the issue.

You can change the regular toolbars that are now built into the doc
window, though. You can turn them off via View | Toolbars. The
customize toolbars dialog was moved to either View | Customize Toolbars,
or to Right-click the built-in toolbar.

I'd suggest using View | Customize Toolbars to create your own toolbar,
which will float, so it can be longer than the doc window is wide.

 

[DanS]

Yes, draft view gets rid of the mini-toolbar, so I'll use that for now. I guess I just like seeing the margins, headers, etc. while I work. I was able, after some experimenting, to get all toolbars customized. I actually eliminated the Standard toolbar, because it's always docked and you can't change properties (or add new button icons), so I created new toolbars, customized their properties and icons, then docked them. Works great.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I can add new commands to the standard toolbar here, and remove them.

But I can't make a toolbar I created show up in the built-in space in
the document window. Is that what you mean by "docked"? How'd you do that?

 

[DanS]

Well, I cheated. Yes, you can add new commands to the Standard toolbar, but you can't customize them (change the icon, make new group boundaries, eliminate the text and use only icons, etc.). So I eliminated the Standard toolbar altogether and used the other toolbars that you can dock (Formatting, Tables, etc.). First, you have to un-dock them to make changes. Then I took out what I didn't want, inserted my often-used items, changed the icons, and then re-docked the toolbars. It looks and works great.

 

[Phillip Jones]

I just write probably less DanS does (like 100% or 99.9999% anyway.
But I prefer to use the Layout mode so that I know how item will fall on
a Page. If you put in Preview then Print it doesn't print anything like
what you wrote in Preview.

I know they probably is some corporate types that use word as a
substitute for PageMaker Or Frame maker or inDesign. But I'm not one of
them. If they are needed at all they should simply be menu choices say

Personally, I think that if you just write text 99% of the time, there's
no good reason not to use Draft view. Eliminating the issue.

You can change the regular toolbars that are now built into the doc
window, though. You can turn them off via View | Toolbars. The
customize toolbars dialog was moved to either View | Customize Toolbars,
or to Right-click the built-in toolbar.

I'd suggest using View | Customize Toolbars to create your own toolbar,
which will float, so it can be longer than the doc window is wide.

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[Daiya Mitchell]

Ah, I see. Thanks.

Word of warning--back up your Normal template regularly (at least
duplicate it now). If it corrupts, you cannot move a customized default
toolbar to another template, as you can with a new custom toolbar.

2008 moved the Normal template to here:
[username]/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User
Templates/Normal.dotm

 

[DanS]

Thanks! I had considered that, but didn't know how or where to make a backup, so I just did. You probably noticed it, but I forgot to mention that I didn't create a "new" toolbar, as new ones can't be docked. I just took two of the existing toolbars that CAN be docked, and completely revised them. It seems it doesn't matter what they're called -- you can put any items in them.

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

I did notice that, and no, it doesn't matter what's on the toolbar.

If you create a totally new toolbar, and then Normal corrupts, you can
usually move the toolbar into a new Normal, unless Normal is so corrupt
you can't open it.

But you can't move built-in toolbars from template to template. So if
you change a built-in toolbar, and then Normal corrupts, your work is lost.

With Word 2008, it's a tradeoff between being able to recover your work
and being able to dock a toolbar in the window. But backing up Normal
regularly should be a fine workaround.

I always customize the built-in Reviewing and Outlining toolbars, to
take advantage of their tendency to pop up at the right times, and just
back up.

 

[MC]

With Word 2008, it's a tradeoff between being able to recover your work
and being able to dock a toolbar in the window. But backing up Normal
regularly should be a fine workaround.

Time Machine has saved my bacon when I lost another file. If you have
Leopard you have Time Machine -- just add an external drive. Well worth
it. And you can go back in time to find Normal and restore it.

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Dan:

I assume you have discovered that you can collapse the Elements Gallery to a
single ? By clicking on one of its tabs (any one..)

Hint: Do NOT customise the Standard toolbars: make your own toolbar, and
copy everything you need onto that.

The reason is that if your Normal.dotm every goes bang, you will want your
custom toolbar back. You can use Organiser to copy toolbars that YOU make
to your new Normal.dotm, but you cannot copy the standard toolbars, because
to do so would corrupt the new template.

Hope this helps

Well, I cheated. Yes, you can add new commands to the Standard toolbar, but
you can't customize them (change the icon, make new group boundaries,
eliminate the text and use only icons, etc.). So I eliminated the Standard
toolbar altogether and used the other toolbars that you can dock (Formatting,
Tables, etc.). First, you have to un-dock them to make changes. Then I took
out what I didn't want, inserted my often-used items, changed the icons, and
then re-docked the toolbars. It looks and works great.

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McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
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Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Guest]

John, Yes I know the bar can be collapsed; I just wanted to get rid of it altogether. I haven't changed the Standard toolbar, just hid it and used my own. Thanks for the note about Organizer.