Sizing What is Displayed in the Styles Gallery

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 20, 2024)
This tip applies to Word 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021


2

When Paul used Word 2016, in the Styles Gallery shown on the Home tab of the ribbon he had about 6 styles displayed. When he changed PCs and moved to Word 365, the size of the typeface or icons enlarged and he can only show 3 options. Paul wonders if there is a way to reduce the size of what is shown in the Styles Gallery. In most documents he only uses 5 or 6 styles, and having to click down to display more styles is irritating.

The short answer is that you cannot adjust the size of elements of the ribbon—they are hard-coded in the program. That being said, you could adjust the display settings in Windows, and that may affect the size of all elements shown within Word (including the elements of the ribbon). It would also affect the display of elements within all the other programs on your system.

Another potential solution which may not be as agreeable is to increase the resolution of your monitor which, of course, may entail getting a new monitor. This is relatively easy to do for desktop systems, but not for laptops.

If you want to add, order, or delete styles shown in the Styles Gallery (sometimes called the Quick Styles Gallery), you may be interested in this tip:

https://tips.net/T4271

It should also be noted that if you are only using 5 or 6 styles in your documents, you may want to simply skip using the Styles Gallery and assign shortcut keys to the styles. It is not terribly difficult to remember 5 or 6 shortcuts, and once you confirm them in your memory, you can apply the styles very quickly. In this manner you can easily ignore any changes—size or otherwise—that Microsoft may make to the ribbon in the future.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11784) applies to Microsoft Word 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. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Converting Coded Dates into Real Dates

Sometimes the format in which you receive data is not the same format that would be optimal for Excel. For instance, you ...

Discover More

Picking a Workbook Format

Need to share workbook information with a wide number of people? It can be puzzling to figure out which version of Excel ...

Discover More

Understanding Decimal Tabs

Word offers a variety of tabs that define different ways to align text. If you need to align numeric values, you'll ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Changing the Format for a Date Inserted Using the Keyboard Shortcut

If you are having difficulties getting Word to insert the date exactly the way you want, it could have to do with how you ...

Discover More

Calculating Expressions

Word can do some simple calculations for you, if you add a little-known tool to your toolbar. Here's how to add and use ...

Discover More

Using Alt to Switch Language Keyboards

There are scores of keyboard shortcuts built into both Windows and Word. If you run into a conflict between shortcut ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is two more than 7?

2024-04-20 13:42:25

Tomek

Sorry, I attached wrong screenshots to my earlier posting.
@Paul: What shows on the Ribbon depends mainly on the screen (or more specifically window) resolution. Just to check this issue I changed my screen resolution from 1920x1080 to 800x600 and found that no styles whatsoever showed in the style gallery. The same when I opened Word in a much smaller window. However, I could get all the styles in my style gallery by pressing on the Styles button. (see Figure 1 below) (see Figure 2 below) . I guess displaying Styles panel permanently may not work well with your limited resolution.
Also, I was able to get some of the styles visible in the styles gallery by removing from the Home Ribbon groups that I do not use from the ribbon (Editor and Add-Ins). And remember, you can re-organize your ribbon and add those that you remove from one place to a custom group on another tab or to your own custom tab, or even QAT.
So, if you cannot increase your screen resolution, consider one of the above approaches.

Figure 1. 

Figure 2. 


2024-04-20 10:42:17

Brian Lair

Or add a button in the Quick Access Toolbar for each of your favorite styles.


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the ribbon interface (Word 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.