Changing Toolbar Location

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 14, 2021)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

You can quickly and easily change the location of Word toolbars to achieve whatever appearance you desire on your screen. For instance, if you double-click your mouse on any portion of a toolbar that is not occupied by a tool, the toolbar is removed from its normal location and appears in its own dialog box.

Once in a dialog box format, you can easily drag a toolbar to any location on the screen desired. If you approach a side of the screen, the toolbar will "dock" to the side.

You should experiment with toolbar locations to determine which is best for the type of work you do.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (1235) 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

Not Enough System Resources

When you are using Excel, it can be frustrating to receive a cryptic error message that indicates the program cannot ...

Discover More

Generating Numeric Testing Data

Excel can be used to generate random testing data that you can use in any way you deem necessary. This tip provides ...

Discover More

Turning Off Paste Options

Paste information into a document and you'll immediately see a small icon next to the pasted information. This icon ...

Discover More

Comprehensive VBA Guide Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is the language used for writing macros in all Office programs. This complete guide shows both professionals and novices how to master VBA in order to customize the entire Office suite for their needs. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2010 today!

More WordTips (menu)

Customizing a Toolbar

Word is quite flexible in how you can configure the user interface. This tip explains how you can customize a toolbar so ...

Discover More

Displaying the Outlining Toolbar by Default

The Outlining toolbar contains tools that are helpful to use, even if you aren't working on your document's outline. This ...

Discover More

Finding a Missing Toolbar

A few methods for finding an errant toolbar in Word.

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 9 + 7?

2016-12-24 13:49:28

Allan Poe

I have Word 97. This Tip will not work for me. "...if you double-click your mouse on any portion of a toolbar that is not occupied by a tool...". There is no toolbar, at least in my Word 97, that does not contain a tool. If I rt clk on a toolbar the dropdown menu, including such things as Standard, Formatting, etc. appears.

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.