The solutions lie within my reply to your original inquiry. Although you
didn't fully describe your needs nor mention the Elements Gallery at all,
there is no confusion, but perhaps more detail is in order
First, in Word> Preferences> Gallery you can elect to not have the Elements
Gallery display. The buttons representing its components, however, cannot be
gotten rid of... They are there to stay. If enough demand is voiced [Help>
Send Feedback...] perhaps that control will be included in the next release
of Mac Office, but I seriously doubt it will be added to Office 2008 by way
of an update... If so it would have happened by now
Second, use Tools> Customize Menus & Toolbars to create one or more of your
own bars to include any and all commands you think you need. If you need
more info on how to do so see Word Help on the topic: Customize Toolbars and
Menus, or go to the Mactopia "Help & How-To" site via this link;
<
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/help.mspx?target=ebaec018-79b7-46de-974a-65941
7104fe91033&clr=99-4-0&parentid=6e613a21-ca14-4438-9047-d2edc81d5c2b1033&ep=
7&CTT=Category&MODE=pv&locale=en-US&usid=7a1b8fe2-c240-47aa-bc97-f4ad46a3f3e
b>
You can use the lower right corner to "stretch" the completed toolbar to
whatever height & width you prefer [subject to the nature of the controls
you've added], enabling the display of multiple rows of controls. You can
also do the same with any of the Built-In toolbars as long as the bar is not
Docked in the document window. [The only bar that can't be un-Docked is the
Standard Toolbar.]
A 'floating' toolbar can also be dragged at will to any location on the
screen. Use the 'handle' at the left end of a floating bar to drag it
around. However, it can also be snapped into a fixed position directly
beneath the application Menu Bar (outside the document window). As long as
it is actually snapped into place document windows will automatically
respect its space & not be positioned on top of or beneath it.
Third, once your custom toolbar is created click the capsular button
referred to in my previous reply to collapse the Standard Toolbar display
area & leave it that way forevermore.
Fourth, you can use Full Screen View to optimize screen space, but that
opens a whole new can of worms. It would involve resetting Rulers, Scroll
Bars, Status Bar, etc. & plays havoc with any overstuffed toolbars. One
consideration is that you can assign a keystroke to the ToggleFull command
(as you can to most anything else that doesn't have one already assigned) in
order to switch back & forth between it & whatever view you were previously
using or use a keystroke to switch directly to some other view.
Lastly, just because the originator of the document relied on direct
formatting doesn't mean you have to follow suit. You can still take
advantage of applying styles in order to expedite reformatting -- that would
also obviate the need for so many controls on your toolbar. I can't say that
it would be appropriate for your requirements, but the first thing I do when
confronted by a document that had been hacked & chopped is to *remove* all
formatting that had been done... I've even gone so far as to paste as
unformatted text into a new document & go from there
HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
