Table Tools Missing from Ribbon in Word

Question

We use office 365, and are current for this year. Recently, I discovered that a Table Tools section has been removed from the Layout section of the Ribbon in Word and I can find no way to add it back. 

Why?

Answer 1

Hi

A screenshot would be helpful.

The layout tab is a sub-tab of the contextual Table Tools. The "Table Tools" header above the Table Design and Layout tabs has been dropped in recent releases. .Table Design and Layout tabs are still present when you are in a table.

Here's how to post a screenshot:

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/for...

(Per Bob Jones (aka Cybertaz), the parts about screen capture only apply to Windows. On the Mac you would use Cmd+Shift+4. See his screenshot for various shortcuts. https://filestore.community.support.microsoft.c... )

This forum is a user-to-user support forum. I am a fellow user.

I hope this information helps.

Please let me know if you have any more questions or require further help.

You can ask for more help by replying to this post (Reply button below).

Regards

Answer 2

Hi, EH917

I am Akiva independent advisor

I suggest you try to follow the steps of the following link

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/custom...

I hope it helps

Answer 3

Hi, EH917

I am Akiva independent advisor

I suggest you try to follow the steps of the following link

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/custom...

I hope it helps

Are you familiar with the built-in tabs asked about?

This is not something for customize the ribbon; it is about a change in the way ribbon tabs are displayed. Previously they were displayed as:

The header tab "Table Tools" is no longer shown and the Design Tab has been renamed Table Design, apparently in the hope of distinguishing it from the (non-Table) Design and Layout Tabs.

Answer 4

As Charles wrote, the contextual ribbon tabs have changed in recent versions of Word. For example, the contextual table tabs will be displayed as two separate tabs on the ribbon instead of being grouped under a "parent" tab called Table Tools.

Answer 5

Charles, thanks for the screen caps.

EH917:  I see this is a final "cleanup" of (dis)"improvements" MS is making to the ribbon display.  If you look at 2010, you see other contextual tabs with similar high level colored "flag" tabs for example:

Compare to same contextual tab(s) in 2016:

Personally, I prefer the 2010 approach because it makes it easier to identify the contextual tabs. The new approach makes these already "now you see 'm, now you don't" popup / contextual tabs even harder to find. But that is only me ...

The one tweak I would make if I installed 365/2019 would be to customize the "Layout" tab name to "Table Layout", make it more obvious what this contextual tab is associated with.