Deleting Menu Items

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 26, 2025)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

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...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Deleting a Page

Want to delete the current page? There is no automatic command to perform this task in Word, but you can create your own ...

Discover More

Adding Hyperlinks

Adding a hyperlink to a text selection is easy to do in Word. All you need to do is make a couple of clicks and specify ...

Discover More

Automatically Loading Add-ins

Want to load a particular add-in for use with a specific worksheet? Here's a quick way to do it using macros.

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Animated Menus

Want to get a bit fancy with how the Word interface behaves? You can configure Word so that its menus don't just appear, ...

Discover More

Disappearing Macro Menus

Word is quite versatile in how you can customize it. You can add all sorts of macros to menus, but doing so may cause ...

Discover More

Custom Menu Stays, but Options Disappear

It can be disconcerting when a custom menu you've used for years suddenly loses all the options it previously contained. ...

Discover More

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

Notify me about new comments ONLY FOR THIS TIP

Notify me about new comments ANYWHERE ON THIS SITE

Hide my email address

What is nine minus 0?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)

This Site

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.