How to Locate and Display an Excel 2003 Toolbar

Go beyond Standard and Formatting toolbars with hidden toolbars

By
Ted French
Ted French
Writer
Former Lifewire writer Ted French is a Microsoft Certified Professional who teaches and writes about spreadsheets and spreadsheet programs.
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Updated on February 7, 2022

What to Know

  • Select View > Toolbars, then select the name of a toolbar.
  • To close toolbar, choose View > Toolbars > select the name again to remove the check mark.

This article explains how to find and show a Microsoft Excel 2003 toolbar and how to close it when you don't need it. It also includes information about the Standard toolbar and Formatting toolbar.

How to Locate and Show Hidden Toolbars

Before the Ribbon made its first appearance in Excel 2007, the previous versions of Excel used toolbars. If you are working in a version of Excel 97 through Excel 2003 and a toolbar is missing or if you need to find a seldom-used toolbar that is not normally visible, follow these steps to find and show the toolbar in Excel.

Hidden toolbars include AutoText, Control Toolbox, Database, Drawing, E-mail, Forms, Frames, Mail Merge, Outlining, Picture, Reviewing, Tables and Borders, Task Pane, Visual Basic, Web, Web Tools, Word Count, and WordArt. To open any of these toolbars:

  1. Click the View menu to open the drop-down list.

  2. Click on Toolbars in the list to open the second drop-down list containing all available toolbars.

    Excel 2003 showing View menu options

  3. Click on the name of a toolbar in the list to make it visible in Excel.

  4. After you complete this process, the toolbar should remain visible in Excel the next time you open the program. If you don't need it open, choose View > Toolbars and click it again to remove the check mark.

The chosen toolbars appear beneath the Standard and Formatting toolbars.

About Toolbars

The Standard and the Formatting toolbars are the most commonly used toolbars. They are turned on by default. Other toolbars must be turned on for use.

  • The Standard toolbar is located at the top of the screen just below the menu bar. It contains basic actions such as New, Save, Open, Copy, Paste, and Print.
  • The Formatting toolbar is next to the Standard toolbar. It contains text commands such as font, text size, bullets, bolding, and numbering. 

By default, these two toolbars appear side by side at the top of the Excel screen. Because of this, some of the buttons on each toolbar are hidden from view. Click the double arrows at the end of the toolbar to show the hidden buttons. Click a button to move it to a place on the toolbar where it will be visible. It takes the place of a different button, which moves to the hidden section of the toolbar.

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