How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

New Daddy
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How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by New Daddy »

Over the years, my Word's UI has collected menu tabs that were created by other applications that I've since stopped using.
For example, I still have a PDF element menu tab although I'm using Acrobat now.
You can hide these remnant tabs by un-checking them in the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box.

However, for some reason, the menu ribbon gets all messed up. The order gets rearranged randomly, and these dormant menu tabs reappear.
So how do I completely remove these unused menu tabs from the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box?

(Maybe I have to find the root cause of the issue and locate what's causing this occasional rearrangement of the menu tab, but it sounds like a bigger task.)

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HansV
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by HansV »

If it's OK to reset the Ribbon AND the Quick Access Toolbar to factory settings:

Select File > Options.
Select 'Customize Ribbon'.
On the right-hand side, near the bottom, you'll find a Reset drop-down.
Select 'Reset all customizations'.

S1502.png

Click Yes in the dialog that follows.
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Best wishes,
Hans

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

Also, if you have any Add-Ins that produce these tabs, unload the Add-Ins.

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SpeakEasy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by SpeakEasy »

>You can hide these remnant tabs by un-checking them in the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box.

You should also be able to remove them by right-clicking them an selecting Delete from the resulting menu ( this option does not appear for built-in ribbon tabs)

New Daddy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by New Daddy »

HansV wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 18:30
If it's OK to reset the Ribbon AND the Quick Access Toolbar to factory settings:

Select File > Options.
Select 'Customize Ribbon'.
On the right-hand side, near the bottom, you'll find a Reset drop-down.
Select 'Reset all customizations'.

Wouldn't that get rid of the custom menu tabs that I want to keep? for example, the Acrobat tab?

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HansV
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by HansV »

Yes, it would. But Acrobat would almost certainly restore its tab.
Best wishes,
Hans

New Daddy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by New Daddy »

SpeakEasy wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 19:15
>You can hide these remnant tabs by un-checking them in the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box.

You should also be able to remove them by right-clicking them an selecting Delete from the resulting menu ( this option does not appear for built-in ribbon tabs)
"Delete" doesn't come up when I right-click. All I have is Add new tab / add new group / rename / show tab / reset tab / move up / move down, in that order from the above.

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SpeakEasy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by SpeakEasy »

Oh dear. Sounds like you'll need to edit the ribbonx xml ...

If you want to look at that, then for Word, that is in

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office

by default. Open Word16.customUI with a zip manager (e.g winzip or 7-zip), navigate to the CustomUI folder. and look for the CustomUI2.xml file XML file in there

(But don't mess with the contents if you are not confident about what you are doing - and take a backup first ...)
Last edited by SpeakEasy on 14 Jun 2022, 20:05, edited 1 time in total.

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

New Daddy wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 20:05
SpeakEasy wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 19:15
>You can hide these remnant tabs by un-checking them in the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box.

You should also be able to remove them by right-clicking them an selecting Delete from the resulting menu ( this option does not appear for built-in ribbon tabs)
"Delete" doesn't come up when I right-click. All I have is Add new tab / add new group / rename / show tab / reset tab / move up / move down, in that order from the above.
If these were added using the Word UI Customize the Ribbon dialog, in that dialog if you click on a tab and select it, the Delete or Remove button should be available.

New Daddy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by New Daddy »

Charles Kenyon wrote:
14 Jun 2022, 00:37
New Daddy wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 20:05
SpeakEasy wrote:
13 Jun 2022, 19:15
>You can hide these remnant tabs by un-checking them in the "Customize Ribbon" dialog box.

You should also be able to remove them by right-clicking them an selecting Delete from the resulting menu ( this option does not appear for built-in ribbon tabs)
"Delete" doesn't come up when I right-click. All I have is Add new tab / add new group / rename / show tab / reset tab / move up / move down, in that order from the above.
If these were added using the Word UI Customize the Ribbon dialog, in that dialog if you click on a tab and select it, the Delete or Remove button should be available.
I don't think these were added using the Word UI Costimize the Ribbon diaglog. They were added by third-party applications, without my involvement.

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

I see that some tabs are not susceptible to the Remove command. Here is a screenshot from my computer showing four that could not be altered using the Customize the Ribbon dialog.
00 deleteme 1.png
The Adobe tab is from the Adobe Com Add-In and can be removed by removing the Add-In.

The other two are from other programs that would need to be uninstalled. For yours, you need to determine the source and remove it.
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New Daddy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by New Daddy »

Charles Kenyon wrote:
14 Jun 2022, 16:54
I see that some tabs are not susceptible to the Remove command. Here is a screenshot from my computer showing four that could not be altered using the Customize the Ribbon dialog.

00 deleteme 1.png

The Adobe tab is from the Adobe Com Add-In and can be removed by removing the Add-In.

The other two are from other programs that would need to be uninstalled. For yours, you need to determine the source and remove it.
That’s actually the gist of my issue. Those third-party applications have long been removed - e.g., PDF element after I purchased Acrobat. I have no idea why these menu tabs still linger after the applications have been removed.

It looks like my only option now is to reset the menu bar.

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Charles Kenyon
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by Charles Kenyon »

You could check with the original program to see if they have a solution. With the ones on my computer, if I uninstall them (not delete, but uninstall) they remove the tabs.

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SpeakEasy
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Re: How do you completely get rid of remnant, unused menu tabs?

Post by SpeakEasy »

>It looks like my only option now is to reset the menu bar

Not necessarily - have you tried my suggestion from 13 Jun 2022, 22:07?