Resetting Toolbars to Their Default

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated July 20, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Word is very flexible. You can customize your working environment to your heart's content. You can change menus, the toolbar, viewing and printing options, and many more variables. There may come a day, however, when you want to reset the Word toolbars to their default condition. When you do this, all the toolbar buttons and their order will be set to the same condition they were when you first installed Word. If you want to reset a toolbar, follow these steps:

  1. Choose Customize from the Tools menu. You will see the Customize dialog box.
  2. Make sure the Toolbars tab is selected. (See Figure 1.)
  3. Figure 1. The Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog box.

  4. In the list of available toolbars, select the one you want to reset.
  5. Click on the Reset button. Word displays the Reset Toolbar dialog box.
  6. Select the location or template for which you want the resetting to occur.
  7. Click on OK to reset the toolbar.
  8. Repeat steps 3 through 6 for each toolbar you want to reset.
  9. Click on Close to dismiss the Customize dialog box.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1127) 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. ...

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