Thick window title bar in office 365 applications

[Przemyslaw W]

Hello,

My office got updated to 2110 version and with this update something got broken with window title bars in all office apps that I use (Excel, Word... I didn't restart yet OneNote but it'll suffer probably too)... The window title bars are irritating thick/big/wide - whatever to call it. But when I click "File" on ribbon menu the title bar is back to normal - nicely thin/normal.

Is there option to Restore "normal, thin window title bars"?

Check the screenshot - the blue line I draw at edge of the window title bar (you can also see the thickness of window title bar by looking at the highlighted buttons (close and user)).

I have Win10 pro v2004. Office (excel version in example: 2110 )

Or this is because of this ugly Windows 11 looks (this is my personal opinion).

[#2]

That looks like the "touch-optimized" UI. https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/turn-touch-mode-on-or-off-90e162b1-44f9-434f-bc2b-9321c98...

[#3]

@VasilMichevOffice365 updated on my PC today. I have mouse mode enabled (and have flicked between mouse/touch to test). The new title bar seems double thickness in any mode and looks infantile (and takes up more space). I only came across this post searching for how to get the title bar back to a normal standard thickness.

[#4]

yes it is the new look
and yes it is awful, I'm hating it too. Plus it is seriously forcing me to reconsider all my tool bar shortcuts.
Tried to post as separate thread just about it, will copy down below, hope someone reads it, maybe helps me with it.
"Seriously, it is very bad, the new look. It's actually ruining the functionality of my tool bar, big time.

Why can't we have the choice to keep the old look, whenever these "new looks" come up? (same happens in the Xbox consoles UIs). Just PLEASE give us the option to roll back or opt out any time you guys bring up a new look. Is that such a crazy idea? So many software apps to this.

And now this forum system won't let me post this complain. Keeps talking about an autosave. Seriously, not paying your apps any more. Enough with these shenanigans. I could actually ask for my money back every time you ruin something that was working."

[#5]

Yes, I do feel same. MS don't give a cr-p about user, as long they can suck our money (from business they drain even more of it). I had so many times thought :"what an idiot decided about removing/adding some annoyance (a.k.a. feature) and it can't be turned on or off..." (and add some phrases to it that are not written here because they'd break some rules of this forum).

I personally hate how the crapple products looks and works (don't work) too, so seeing this in w11 make me to not like it too, not to mention how they remove some good features for "idiot-proof"... (Yes, I'm in Linux,Android,ATI,AMD camp 😛 ) I won't go into what I think about those requirements of w11 - this is not place for it, nor I feel like writing about it...

But back to ms-office, since 2 or 3 last updates they started to break more and more, I had to disable hardware accel. in excel because when I worked on xls (not xlsx) file it freezed the grid and it's window (I could click cell, edit it, save it using keyboard shortcuts and "memory" (what, where pop-up and in what order), but screen was not refreshed at all (no dialogs shown, no changes, on selection whatsoever) - so I saw still that same "window" from before freeze moment. After closing and reopening excel (and file) I could see those changes...)

[#6 · Accepted solution]

In the coming soon section in office (which I’ve found to be turned on) this enables this new look. Click on the megaphone on the upper right corner, scroll to the bottom of the page and disable the preview


Coming Soon

Coming Soon gives you an opportunity try new features and share feedback with us before the changes are released to all customers.

Office has a fresh look. It’s modern and new, designed to help you focus on your best work. This new update includes:

:black_medium_small_square:Simple, intuitive, and seamless experience across all your Office apps

:black_medium_small_square:Customizable ribbon that you can change and create shortcuts to everyday commands you use the most

:black_medium_small_square:Office themes that stay in sync with your Windows light or dark mode setting by default

:black_medium_small_square:Share your work and collaborate with others in real time by selecting Share and sending your draft to whomever you want.

Try the new experience

On

Turn on Try the new experience to try it and let us know what you think! We’re listening and are making more improvements based on your feedback.

[#7]

@SusanBradleyGeekThank you for that! It's sorted the rather infantile looking super wide bar.

The worry of course is that is going to be an upcoming feature that we won't be able to remove when it goes live.

[#8]

bro that's not the case, whatever I switch between the touch/mouse UI, it's the same, freakly thick...

[#9]

That works for me,
Let's make it clear, if you're in trouble with the thick/tall titlebar of new office 365:
1. click the 'coming soon' button (usually on the left of the minimize button)
2. scroll to the bottom, turn off 'Try the new experience'
3. close all office 365 windows and reboot them..

below are chinese version:
如果你也被新版office 365 （2110）超高的标题栏困扰，按如下步骤操作可恢复原来的界面：
1. 点击“即将推出”按钮（窗口最小化按钮左边）
2. 滑到底部，关闭“尝试新体验”
3. 关闭所有office 365窗口并重新启动。

[#10]

@SusanBradleyGeekThanks a lot! That worked. Still, I'll be phasing out of Office since this seems to be an upcoming forced "update". Time to try other software, since I'll be having to adapt anyway...

[#11]

I do saw this, but at that time I did not pay attention to it, I had more important thing to do so I just closed it.
To access it it, it required in Settings->General->Privacy to be checked "All connected experiences" (last options) and "Experiences that allow you to download online content" (or something like that - I don't have english office , I have to translate it from my native to english).

[#12]

I agree, especially with scarce vertical space in laptops, switch coming soon off to fix the awful thick title bar.

[#13]

Thank you!!!!

[#14]

@DrJefri 

Both versions use from 25% to 33% percent before you see first line of mails, not really good for executive laptops with short vertical space,

[#15]

@SusanBradleyGeek Very nice! I hate when new "features" that I didn't want are added by default. Your solution worked, but somehow the Quick Launch toolbar was moved below the ribbon. I had to select "show above ribbon" to put it back where it belongs. Frakking Microsoft!

[#16]

Thank you so much for this solution (turning off new look)
It seems that Microsoft is employing kids from kindergarten to design interfaces. Just wished they'd stop screwing around.

[#17]

This new title bar takes up WAAAAAY too much screen real estate.

[#18]

Thanks for looking into this. This has been driving me crazy for the last few days.

yay for new features I guess.. 😕

[#19]

I just got a new laptop with Windows 11. I am also seeing the extra thick title bar on all Office apps. I really dislike this change. It is especially bad because the office title bar is now thicker (has more height) then all the other Windows 11 apps. So this change which was supposed to make it more visually consistent with Windows 11 actually makes it less so.

Microsoft please provide an option to go back to the narrower title bar. The extra space isn't even used for anything so it would not even change anything about the application.

[#20]

I don't think Microsoft will even look at this issue. I measured the title bar and is double the size of the old one.
Anyway I just googled (hehe) and it seems that is only us 18 people that have this issue.
By disabling the "Coming soon" I got the smaller title bar in Word, but not on Outlook.
There are also other "improvements" that make it actually worse for business use 😞