06-23-2009, 08:49 AM

Recently, everytime I open a new file in MS Worad for Mac (2008), there are no toolbars showing. Under the view menu, toolbars are selected, but they don't show when opening the file. In order to have the toolbars show, I need to go under view/toolbars and select another one. Then all the toolbars show up. (but none of the buttons show up until I select some text in the document).

Anyone know what is going on?

Thanks

06-23-2009, 02:56 PM

All toolbars, menus, etc. when setup and viewed from the "normal template" should show up in place whenever you create a new document based on that template. Since the normal template is loaded by default when you start Word and select new, menus and toolbars should be there.

If you use or create a template that is modified from the normal template, and certain toolbars or menus have been excluded, every time you create a document based on that template - it will only show what toolbars and menus you had in place when it was saved.

OK. You can modify your normal template at any time, and once modified, every document based on the normal template will show what toolbars and menus you assigned.

To modify the normal template, start Word and select open from the top menu. Make sure "enable all documents" is selected. Now from the selection menu, navigate to:

/Users/your user name/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/ and click on "normal.dotm" to open it.

Make any and all changes you wish - font, menus, toolbars, etc. and then save the file. Close Word and restart.

Regards.

06-23-2009, 03:55 PM

Thank you. I tried that, found the normal.dotm and opened up the standarsd and fomatting toolbars, and changed the font. I saved normal.dotm and closed Word.

Opened word again and the new document has the font change I made, but the toolbars are still not showing. If I go through the view menu, it tells me the toolbars are selected, but they are not showing. The only way I seem to be able to get a toolbar to show is to select one that is not alread selected, then when I highlight a section in the document, they all show up.

Strange.

06-23-2009, 04:37 PM

That's strange. Any modifications made to normal.dotm should stick. The only other thing I can think of is perhaps the normal template has become corrupt. Has happened to me before.

The cure for that is to delete the old normal template and let Word create another when it restarts. What I suggest is rather than delete the old normal template, move it to your desktop (of course make sure Word is not running) instead. Restart Word.

Once the new normal template loads, make the changes you wish to toolbars, menus, and so forth. Execute a save all and restart Word. See if that helps.

If no help, restore the original normal template to its correct place. You may wind up reinstalling Office.

Also, you can try posting a question about your problem on the MS Mac Office forum. The folks who hang out there are experts and very helpful.

Here's the Link.

Regards.

06-23-2009, 04:57 PM

Your toolbars aren't just hidden are they? Click the little button in the top right hand corner of your window.

06-25-2009, 11:04 AM

Oh. Now I feel like a Nimrod. Didn't know they could be hidden or why that started. Thanks vansmith.

Thanks chscag for the help - I learned something on the template I will use going forward - and will keep the link.

06-25-2009, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by jam2000

Oh. Now I feel like a Nimrod. Didn't know they could be hidden or why that started.

I've done this my mistake before - you probably just hit it by mistake at some point.

06-25-2009, 05:40 PM

Thank you, jam2000, for asking this question! And thank you, vansmith, for posting the answer!

I had no clue where my toolbars went -- and no knowledge about that oblong button 'til I found this post via Google.

Sincerely,
fellow nimrod

07-13-2009, 10:07 PM

same thing happened to me.. was driving me nuts!! thank you so much

12-22-2009, 01:48 AM

Originally Posted by vansmith

Your toolbars aren't just hidden are they? Click the little button in the top right hand corner of your window.

OMG! I have been fiddling with this for days. In fact I have registered on this forum just to say THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Robyn Logan
International Coach Academy
Become A Coach - Free Coaching Information and Resources

12-22-2009, 08:42 AM

Originally Posted by vansmith

Your toolbars aren't just hidden are they? Click the little button in the top right hand corner of your window.

My Word (Office 2004) documents do not have the oblong toggle at the upper right. I've known that it is missing for awhile, but don't see a setting to "turn it on". I really can't say for sure that I ever noticed it up there. Is there any way to disable it? If so, then there must be a way to enable it!

05-26-2011, 10:17 AM

I'd like to thank jam2000 and vansmith, for posting this dialogue years ago to quickly save me days of grief. I've been doing the dumbest things to accommodate this issue. I am grateful for forums like this!

07-17-2011, 07:01 AM

Wow, I actually have been using MSWord through Parallel on a Windows OS on my Mac for the last 3 years just because my toolbars wouldn't show up on the Mac version of Word and I thought it was so insanely annoying that MS wouldn't have bothered to give us automatically appearing tabs when opening a new document. I guess the last laugh is on me. haha. oops.

Thank you for solving such an agonizing problem!! nothing shows up when you mouse over that little thing and since all minimize/maximize functions are on the top left of the screen I didn't even think to look up there....

such a sigh of relief.

10-20-2011, 10:47 AM

I too have this problem of missing toolbars on Word for Mac 2008. The usual fix that I find in multiple places on the internet is to just "click on the little oval in the upper right corner". That sounds easy, but there IS NO LITTLE OVAL in the upper right hand corner on my Imac with Lion. I have seen a list of other suggestions , none of which worked.
Any tips on how to get the little oval in the right corner to show up?

Thanks

10-20-2011, 11:03 AM

I see what you mean. The small oval is missing in Lion both for Office 2008 and 2011. I tried many different things to get it to appear again but nothing works except to reset the "normal" template.

Shut down all Office applications. Find your "normal" template and move it to the desktop. Restart Word. The toolbar will be back. To find the normal template go to:

/Users/you/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/

Note: Your User Library is hidden by default in Lion. You will have to unhide it first. (a pain) Enter this in your Terminal Application:

 chflags nohidden ~/Library/