How to Resize the Ribbon in Excel to Match Screen Size

Question

The ribbon in Excel appears larger than the rest of the screen. What steps can be taken to reduce its size to match the screen dimensions?

Answer 1

Hi @Suzy Bell

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A Forum. 

I understand you're having an issue where the Excel ribbon is disproportionately large, and you'd like to adjust its size to match the rest of your screen. The size of the Excel ribbon is usually controlled by your Windows display settings or a specific mode within Office, not an Excel-specific resize handle. You could also try an approach with the Touch/Mouse mode setting: Click the small dropdown arrow on the Quick Access Toolbar > Select "Touch/Mouse Mode" > Click a new icon will appear on the toolbar > select Touch. 

On my version of the application, setting it to Touch mode actually makes the ribbon slightly smaller and more compact. You can test this to see if it has the same effect on your system. 

As an alternative, if you just find the ribbon gets in the way, you can always hide it: You can do this by pressing the small upward-pointing arrow (^) in the bottom-right corner of the ribbon, or by using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + F1. This will collapse the ribbon to show only the tab names. 

Can I ask a clarifying question? When you use Excel for the web (the browser version), does the ribbon appear proportional to the screen, or is it oversized there as well? If it also appears too large, please try adjusting your browser's zoom level. You can typically do this by pressing Ctrl + - (the Control key and the minus key) to zoom out, as shown in the image below:

Please correct me if I misunderstand your request. If you need further assistance, please let us know.

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