How to get rid of the Styles Gallery in Word 2010

Although I absolutely don't advise it, you can remove the entire Styles group as follows:

1. Right-click on the QAT and choose Customize the Ribbon.
2. In the "Customize the Ribbon and keyboard shortcuts" dialog, under Main Tabs, select Home to expand it.
3. Select Styles and click Remove.

Be aware that this will remove not just the Quick Styles gallery but the entire Styles group, and it will not affect the amount of space consumed by the Ribbon itself. If you want to do that, you can minimize the Ribbon by double-clicking on any tab. Click on any tab to open it temporarily for use, or double-click again to expand the Ribbon. You can reduce your need to access the Ribbon by adding frequently used commands to the QAT.

Have the same problem, and what's more, I find when I'm typing, the movement of my hand against the touchpad tends to make the cursor creep up towards the Styles gallery, where it then causes chaos, sometimes even causing Word to crash and lose the document completely.  Have tried the solutions below, bloody thing is still there.  I never use it.

You can customize the Ribbon in Word 2010. Right click on the Ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon.

I would recommend making a Ribbon Tab called MyHome.

Put everything on it but the Styles Gallery. You can add the groups from the Home Tab to it. Make your own Styles Group and add Styles and Change Styles from the original Styles Group.

Set the regular Home Tab as not visible. Move the position of your Tab to the same position as the Home tab.

I personally find the Styles Gallery useful, The Ribbon will take up just as much space without it. It will just have blank areas (or at least it does on my laptop).

Note, you will not be able to easily transfer this modification to other users. To do that you have to get into XML and VBA. Customize the Ribbon (It doesn't take rocket science)

Turn off the touch pad and use a proper mouse.