Ribbon Acting Strangely

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 10, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021

When Geoff opens a document in Word the program displays another tab of the ribbon instead of the Home tab. When he then clicks on the Home tab, all the tabs at the top overwrite the top few lines of the Word file, including the vertical scroll bar. Geoff has no idea how it happened, but it's driving him nuts. He wonders how to get his system back to "normal."

Actually, the description that Geoff provides sounds very similar to how Windows works when the ribbon has been "collapsed." This condition allows the ribbon to take less vertical space on the screen, but still allows all the ribbon functions to be accessible. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The ribbon can appear collapsed at times.

While the ribbon is collapsed, if you click any of the tabs (well, they would look like tabs if the ribbon wasn't collapsed), the contents of that tab expands downward, obscuring whatever part of the document was there. When you click somewhere else in the document, the ribbon again collapses to the single line.

If you want to return your ribbon to normal, try any of the following:

Double click any of the tabs on the ribbon.
Press Ctrl+F1.
Click the tiny upwards-pointing arrow near the upper-right corner of the screen, to the right of the question mark icon or the search icon (depending on your version of Word).

Your ribbon should now be expanded and function as normal.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13308) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Using the Copy or Move Text Keys

Most people use the Clipboard to copy and move text in Word. Before the Clipboard, Word used F2 to move text and Shift+F2 ...

Discover More

Using Outline Numbering in a Table

If you have worked with tables in Word, you probably know how to navigate through the cells with keyboard shortcuts. This ...

Discover More

Selective Summing

If you want to add up the contents of a range of cells based on what is contained in a different range of cells, you need ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (ribbon)

Resetting Ribbons

Word allows you to customize the program's ribbon tabs so they more closely match the way you want to work. At some ...

Discover More

Ruler Disappears when Entire Document Selected

The rulers in Word can be quite helpful when formatting your document. The rulers may not be displayed all the time, ...

Discover More

Displaying Shortcut Keys in ScreenTips

ScreenTips can appear with or without shortcut keys displayed in them. Here's how to control whether they appear or not.

Discover More

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.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is nine more than 9?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

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.