Resetting Ribbons to Their Default

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 29, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021

Word is very flexible. You can customize your working environment in many different ways. One way you can make changes is to add or remove tools from the ribbons visible at the top of the screen. (You can do this in Word 2010 or a later version; you can't change ribbons in Word 2007.)

There may come a day when you want to reset the Word ribbons to their default condition. When you do this, all the ribbons and the order of tools on the ribbons will be set to the same condition they were when you first installed Word. If you want to reset a ribbon, follow these steps:

Display the File tab of the ribbon.
Click Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
At the left of the dialog box click Customize Ribbon. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Customize Ribbon options of the Word Options dialog box.

If you want to reset only a single ribbon tab, select that tab at the right side of the dialog box.
Click the Reset button. Word presents you with two options.
If you want to reset only a single ribbon tab (step 4), then choose Reset Only Selected Ribbon Tab. If you want to reset all the customizations you made to all ribbon tabs, then choose Reset All Customizations.
Click OK to dismiss the Word Options dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9568) applies to Microsoft Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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