Microsoft Excel: Restore Your Menus After Customizing

Article by Mr Excel (11,387 pts )
Edited & published by Neil Henry (18,641 pts ) on Jul 10, 2008

Problem: You were experimenting with customizing the toolbars in Excel. After using Tools – Customize, you noticed that you could drag the Data menu right off the menu bar, as shown in Fig. 131.

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For some unknown reason, you then removed the remaining menu items from the toolbar, leaving only the File menu. You did this either because you were bored or perhaps as an April Fool’s day prank on your manager. As shown in Fig. 132, it would be pretty startling to see this shortened menu in Excel.

All the while, you figured this was good fun, because you thought that you could simply quit Excel, restart Excel, and then have the menus back. However, your gut wrenches as you re-open Excel only to learn that the changes to the menu

bar are permanent, as shown in Fig. 133!

You don’t even have a Tools menu to select Customize from!

Strategy: Relax.

1) Right-click the menu bar and select Customize.

2) In the Customize dialog, go to the Toolbars tab. Scroll down to find the Worksheet Menu bar option. Highlight the Worksheet Menu Bar by clicking on that option, as shown in Fig. 134.

3) As shown in Fig. 135, choose the Reset button along the right side of the dialog.

4) Confirm that you really do want to reset the menu bar, as shown in Fig. 136.

The menu bar will return to its original state. See Fig. 137.

Summary: Many Excel users have been scared away from customizing their toolbars when they accidentally deleted something important. There is nothing to be concerned about. You can always restore the factory defaults by using the method discussed in this chapter.

Commands Discussed: Tools – Customize

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Images

Fig. 131Fig. 132Fig. 133Fig. 134Fig. 135Fig. 136Fig. 137
 
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