Increase font size in excel formula bar

Question

Increase font size in excel formula bar

Office worker 125

After recently upgrading to W11, I note that the font size in the excel formula bar is now tiny (I'm having trouble reading it). How can I change the settings to increase it permanently?

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Answer 1

Jeanie H 7,850 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Dear @Office worker,

Thank you for posting your question in the Microsoft Q&A forum.

Excel does not offer a dedicated setting to adjust only the formula bar's font size. However, you can indirectly make formula text more readable by changing the default font size for your workbook, which also affects the formula bar. The formula bar is part of the Excel interface, not the worksheet content. Its font size is controlled by the application UI scaling, not by workbook font settings.

Go to File > Options > General tab > When creating new workbooks section > Font size dropdown menu > Select the font size that suits your preference from the list.

User's image

Or you can expand this bar to make it easier to view the entire formula, click the button I marked in the image.

User's image

Looking forward to your response!

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Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-25T04:54:10.1066667+00:00

Unfortunately this approach does not work either, current and new workbooks revert back to size 10 font and will not change.
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-25T06:55:30.3966667+00:00

Dear @Office worker,

Can you take a picture to help me with the settings in Excel? Because in my test environment, when I change the font size (this is the whole Excel setting), even though I have the old workbook open and create a new workbook, my font size still remains 16 and doesn't change.
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-25T07:16:28.2166667+00:00

Not really sure what the point of me taking a picture, but here it is. If I change the font size here and close and restart as excel advises me to, the font size will not change.
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-25T07:20:08.07+00:00

Font in the formula bar is too small (Arial 10). Excel worksheet at 120%
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-25T07:26:40.88+00:00

Dear @Office worker,

May I ask that after changing the font size did you press "OK" button to save the adjustment?
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-25T07:36:02.61+00:00

Of course! After that Excel comes up with the message "Please close and restart Microsoft Excel so the font changes can take effect" but they never do take effect!
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-25T23:38:06.2333333+00:00

Dear @Office worker,

It looks like this issue is coming from your app. Please help me with the following steps:

Take a screenshot of:

File > Account > Product Information and the About Excel section on your device.

Perform an Online Repair following this guide:

Repair an Office application

If the problem persists, please uninstall and then reinstall the app.
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-26T01:09:19.3466667+00:00

Thanks Jeanie, but I am not allowed to do that as it is a business app, not personal.
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-26T11:05:36.1166667+00:00

Dear @Office worker,

Based on my environment test, whether it’s an old workbook or a new one, when I change the font setting, it does take effect.

You can try adjusting something in the General section to see if it takes effect. If it doesn’t, then the issue is really with the Excel app.

You can’t repair the app or uninstall it, right? Then could you check if you can perform these steps:

Go to Settings > Apps > Installed apps

Find the Excel app

Click the three dots next to it

Click Advanced options

Do you see the Reset and Repair buttons? Can you click them, or are they greyed out?

If that doesn’t work, then go to Excel > File > Account > Update Options > Update Now. Can you try updating?

These are the things I think you might still be able to do on a company device, so please try them if possible.

If it still doesn’t work, then you’ll need to reach out to your company’s IT Admin and ask if they can help you in this situation.
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-27T01:05:33.6433333+00:00

Thanks Jeanie for all of your suggestions. I wasn't able to implement them due to company restrictions and have reached out to the IT Dept who I believe have now contacted Microsoft directly to ask for a solution. I appreciate the time and effort you have given trying to solve this problem!
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-27T01:12:33.3266667+00:00

Dear @Office worker,

I’m really glad I had the chance to assist you because this is quite an interesting topic. It’s a small feature, but it can significantly impact the user experience. I truly appreciate learning about this issue through you.

Would it be okay if I summarize our case? After that, could you help by accepting the answer? Summarizing and accepting will help this post reach more users, so they can join the discussion. I believe during these exchanges we’ll discover more useful insights, which will be very valuable for the community. There are many users here with great tips to share.

Please let me know so I can summarize our case.
Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-27T01:17:23.5333333+00:00

No problem! Summarise as you see fit
Jeanie H 7,850 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2025-11-27T01:38:19.4733333+00:00

Customer Issue

After upgrading to Windows 11, the Excel formula bar font size became very small and hard to read.

Customer wants to permanently increase the font size.

Initial Workaround Suggested

Change font size via:

File > Options > General > When creating new workbooks > Font size dropdown.

Customer tried this but:

Font size reverts to size 10 for current and new workbooks.

Even after restarting Excel as prompted, changes do not take effect.

Suspected app-related issue.

Requested:

Perform Online Repair (link provided).

If unresolved, uninstall and reinstall the app.

Cannot uninstall/reinstall because it’s a business app (not personal).

Additional Suggestions

Encourage other users to share experiences with this feature.

AI-proposed workaround using Windows Settings:

Start > Settings > Ease of Access > Display > Make Text Bigger slider.

This adjusts text size across the OS, including the Excel formula bar.

Answer 2

To increase the font size in the Excel formula bar after upgrading to Windows 11, you can adjust the text scaling settings in Windows. Here’s how to do it:

Open Settings: Go to the Start menu and select Settings.
Ease of Access: Click on Ease of Access.
Display: In the left sidebar, select Display.
Make Text Bigger: Use the Make text bigger slider to increase the font size. This will affect the text size across the operating system, including the Excel formula bar.

Make sure to apply the changes, and the font size in the formula bar should now be more readable.

If you want to change the font size specifically for Excel, you may need to check if there are any options within Excel itself, but generally, the Windows text scaling will apply to the formula bar as well.

References:

Text scaling

Office worker 125 Reputation points

2025-11-25T03:05:27.4133333+00:00

This does not work, I need an excel-specific solution

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