Minimizing the Ribbon for a Document

Donna is in charge of preparing a document that will be used throughout her company. She would like the document, when opened, to "minimize" the ribbon at the top of the screen and then, when closed, return the ribbon to its "pre-opening" state. This would be done to provide the maximum screen area for the document. Donna figures that this will take a macro to accomplish, but she's not sure which commands to use to accomplish the task.

There is an amazing shortage of information available on working with the ribbon in VBA. In fact, the only method we've been able to locate that will minimize the ribbon is the following:

ActiveWindow.ToggleRibbon

This method is the same as pressing Ctrl+F1. It toggles the ribbon, changing it from maximized to minimized, and vice-versa. This, of course, is not what Donna wants to do; she wants to make sure it is minimized. Using the ToggleRibbon method, you can "fudge" a way to figure out whether the ribbon is minimized or not. Consider the following example macros.

Dim w As Variant
Dim h1 As Long
Dim h2 As Long
Dim StartedWithRibbon As Boolean

Private Sub Document_Open()
    Set w = ActiveWindow
    h1 = w.UsableHeight
    w.ToggleRibbon
    h2 = w.UsableHeight
    If h1 < h2 Then
        StartedWithRibbon = False
    Else
        StartedWithRibbon = True
        w.ToggleRibbon
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub Document_Close()
    Set w = ActiveWindow
    h1 = w.UsableHeight
    w.ToggleRibbon
    h2 = w.UsableHeight
    If h2 < h1 Then
        If StartedWithRibbon Then w.ToggleRibbon
    Else
        If Not StartedWithRibbon Then w.ToggleRibbon
    End If
End Sub

There are actually two macros here, one automatically triggered when a document is opened and the other triggered when it is closed. The macros check the height of the active window, storing it in the h1 variable. It then toggles the ribbon and again checks the active window height, storing it in h2. By comparing the two values, you can determine whether the ribbon is minimized or not and then act accordingly.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8515) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Word in Microsoft 365.