Deleting Menu Items

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 26, 2025)

Word is remarkable in both its flexibility and capabilities for customization. This includes allowing you to completely change the menus within Word, if you so desire. For instance, you may want to delete a menu item so it cannot be selected by other people using your computer. To delete an item from a Word menu, follow these steps:

Select Customize from the Tools menu. Word displays the Customize dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Customize dialog box.

Click on the menu from which you want to delete a menu item. (Not in the Customize dialog box, but actually within Word while the Customize dialog box is open.) This displays the menu.
Drag the item you want deleted off of the menu.
Click on Close in the Customize dialog box when done.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1050) 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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Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.