How to display all menu commands in Office XP programs (290374)

SUMMARY

This step-by-step article describes how to display all menu commands in a Microsoft Office XP program.

When you first start an Office program, the menus and toolbars display basic commands and buttons. As you work with an Office program, the commands and buttons that you use most often are stored as personalized settings and are displayed on menus and toolbars.

If the Always show full menus check box is cleared on the Options tab of Customize on the Tools menu, the commands that you use most frequently are "promoted" and appear on the menus. The commands that you use less often are demoted and do not appear on the menus until you expand the menus.

If you choose this option, Office still stores information about how frequently you use commands, so that if you turn off this option later, the menus adapt and display the recently used commands on the menu.

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How to Display All Menu Commands

To expand the menus to see all of the commands, use one of the following methods:

• Click the arrows at the bottom of the menu.
  
  -or-
• Click a menu and pause for a few seconds until the menu automatically expands.
  
  -or-
• Double-click the menu name in the menu bar.

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How to Control How Menus Are Displayed

You can control how menus are displayed in Office programs. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start any Office program.
2. On the Tools menu, click Customize.
3. Click the Options tab.
4. Click to select or click to clear the Always show full menus check box.
5. Click Close.

NOTE: When you click to select or click to clear the Always show full menus check box, this setting affects all your Office programs.

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