Office 2013 and above has a cleaner, leaner look and it carries over to the Ribbon and Quick Access toolbar (QAT) but the layout is mostly the same as the previous two versions of Office except that the Ribbon has a couple of changes.

Collapse or Expand the Ribbon

Office 2013 has additional options for the Ribbon display, controlled by a small arrow icon at upper right of window (next to the Help ? icon).

The new Auto–hide command totally hides the Ribbon so you can work in a full screen. You click the ellipsis (three dots) at the top right of the screen to temporarily activate. To return the Ribbon to full display, click the Ribbon arrow at upper right and click Auto–hide Ribbon again to toggle off. The other two choices toggle between displaying tab names only or full Ribbon of tabs and commands, the same as previous versions.

Additional Ways to Collapse and Expand the Ribbon

Right click anywhere in the Ribbon and choose Collapse the Ribbon to hide it from view. The tab names remain at the top so you can display and select the Ribbon groups for that tab. The Ribbon disappears again after you choose a command. To return to permanent display, right click on the Ribbon and click Collapse the Ribbon again.

Another method is to double click on any tab name to expand or collapse the Ribbon. That will toggle it off and on. My favorite method doesn’t even need the mouse. Sometimes keyboard shortcuts rule the day. If you quickly want some more real estate to work on that long document or big spreadsheet, just press CTRL F1 to toggle between expand and collapse.

Don’t forget that right clicking in the Ribbon is also a quick way to access Customize the Ribbon…and Customize the Quick Access Toolbar…, as well as moving the QAT from the default location of the upper left of your screen to below the Ribbon where it is much closer to where you actually work.

Notice another option is that any icon you right click over on the Ribbon can be added to the Quick Access Toolbar – a great time saver for those often used commands!