How to Restore the Excel 2007 Ribbon

Love it or hate it, if you're using Microsoft Excel 2007, the "ribbon" serves a valuable function: it organizes common tools into categories and toolbars. While earlier versions of Word used a menu system, Excel 2007 has rearranged the commands, placing the most common ones into the ribbon. But what if the Excel 2007 ribbon disappears? Then what?

For one, you won't be able to easily carry out your favorite Excel commands such as sort, filter, align, format, convert text to columns, and so on unless you know the underlying shortcuts and commands. Fortunately, the ribbon is easy to restore. In fact, once you know the trick, you may want to toggle the Excel 2007 ribbon on and off as needed in order to gain more screen space.

Your first clue that your Excel 2007 ribbon has disappeared is that suddenly your spreadsheet occupies more space on screen and instead of seeing the fat row of tools, you see a thin bar that looks much like a menu bar. In fact, you may even get excited thinking that at last the Microsoft reverted back to its old menu system. No such luck. The menu items aren't menu items after all; they are simply the ribbon's labels for each tab.

You can test this by clicking one of the labels such as Home or Insert. When you do, the ribbon reappears momentarily, displaying the tools for the tab you selected. You'll see that your Excel 2007 ribbon hasn't really disappeared; it has merely been minimized. If you like the additional screen space that results from minimizing the ribbon, you may want to leave the ribbon minimized and then access it as needed by clicking on the tab label for the commands you need.

On the other hand, if you want your Excel 2007 ribbon back, you can easily restore it. Here's how: Look at the topmost bar. In the left corner, you'll see the Office button and a series of icons. On the right edge of the icons, you should see a small down arrow. When you hover over that arrow with your mouse, the label reads "Customize Quick Access Toolbar." Click that down arrow and a menu will appear. Find "Minimize the Ribbon" in the list and remove the checkmark next to that option. Voila! Your disappearing Excel 2007 ribbon reappears.

Now that you know how to minimize and maximize the Excel ribbon, you know how to restore the Word 2007 ribbon as well as the ribbon in other Office 2007 programs. Depending on your preferences, you can now take control over how the ribbon displays in your other Office 2007 programs.