The default layout for Microsoft Excel, can be both distracting and a little intimidating. Particularly if you are new to Excel. So it’s lucky that there are a number of settings that we can use, to customise and de-clutter this application.
- To hide the Search bar at the top of the Excel window.
- Select File from the menu and choose More then Options.
- In General under the heading User Interface Options locate Collapse the Microsoft Search bar by default.
- Untick the check box and click OK.
- To hide the Quick Access Toolbar in the top left of the Excel window.
- Select File from the menu and choose More then Options.
- In Quick Access Toolbar locate Show Quick Access Toolbar.
- Untick the tick box and click OK.
- To hide the ribbon in Excel, locate the up chevron in the bottom right hand on the ribbon and click it.
- The ribbon will now be hidden, unless you click a menu option. At which point the ribbon will reappear.
- To permanently leave the ribbon up, click on the pin icon in the bottom hand corner of the ribbon.
- To disable the Mini Toolbar in Excel, select File from the menu and choose More, then Options.
- In General under the heading User Interface Options, locate and remove the tick next to Show Mini Toolbar on selection.
- When you click OK, the Mini Tool bar should no longer appear.
Note: In the video we make reference to removing the Mini Toolbar in Excel. However we noticed that in our instance of Excel, the mini toolbar would not switch off. So in order to disable the Mini Toolbar we had to edit the Registry in Windows.
- Close Excel.
- Click on the Windows Start button.
- Using Search locate and open Registry Editor.
- Drill down the following path in the registry:
HKEY_Current_User > Software > Microsoft > Office > 16.0 > Common > Toolbars > Excel- Now in the main panel, right click your mouse and from the quick menu choose, New – DWORD (32-bit Value)
- Give the new Registry Key the name AllowMenuFloaties.
- Make sure the key has a value of 0.
Note: Deleting the AllowMenuFloaties key or changing its value to 1. Will turn the Mini Toolbar back on. You can also disable the Mini Toolbar in PowerPoint and Word by putting a AllowMenuFloaties key in the corresponding registry Toolbars folder for those applications.
- Close Registry editor and open Excel.
- You should find that the Mini Toolbar no longer appear.
- Place your mouse pointer on the Status bar of Excel.
- Right click your mouse to display a quick menu.
- Add or remove ticks to add or remove functions from the status bar.
- Click away from the status bar to set its new functions.
Note: We like to add the following function in our status bar, Sheet Number, Maximum, Minimum and Numerical Count.
- Mydoodads article – 5 useful ways to customise Microsoft Word.
- Mydoodads article – How to turn off the Startup screen in MS Excel.
- Microsoft article – Customise the ribbon in Office.
- Microsoft article – Customise how Excel starts.
- Microsoft article – Customise the Quick Access Toolbar.
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