Stupid Web Toolbar

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 14, 2026)

Have you ever noticed how, when you click on a hyperlink within Word the Web toolbar pops up, ready to be useful? Some people find this distracting, and the emotions aroused are akin to those raised during discussions of the Office Assistant.

If you are one of those who find the automatic appearances of the Web toolbar distracting, you may be wondering how you can stop this gate-crashing behavior. Unfortunately, there is no simply check box or setting you can make to turn it off. You can, however, try this workaround:

Create a brand new, empty toolbar. Name it anything you want.
Display both the new, empty toolbar and the Web toolbar.
Use your mouse to drag the tools from the Web toolbar to the new toolbar. Make sure you transfer them all. (There should be nothing left on the Web toolbar.)

That's it. Now, when you use a hyperlink, the Web toolbar should not be displayed--simply because there is nothing left in it.

One slight modification to this process is to create a new button for the original Web toolbar. This would be the only tool on that toolbar when you are completed. This minimalist Web toolbar (with the single button) could then be positioned at the right side of an existing toolbar, thereby minimizing the impact on your editing space in Word. The purpose of the tool would be to display the new toolbar you created in the steps above. Thus, you could click on the tool to display the copy of the original Web toolbar, and click it again to hide it. To accomplish this variation you can use techniques discussed in other issues of WordTips.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (648) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. Learn more about Allen...

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