The Problem:
Half the commands on the menus are useless to me. I'd like to get rid of them to clear out the clutter.
The Solution:
Once you've worked out which commands you need, you can strip the menus down to size. There's a quick way of removing a command from a menu that you can use to knock out the occasional offender, but if you plan to reconfigure several menus, you should use a more formal method.
The quick way of removing a menu command is to press Ctrl+Alt+- (that's the hyphen key). Word turns the mouse pointer into a thick horizontal bar. Click the menu containing the offending command so that the menu opens. Click your victim, and it'll disappear.
The more formal method of removing a menu command is to use the Customize dialog box:
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Open a document based on the template you want to change.
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Choose Tools » Customize and click the Commands tab. Make sure that the "Save in" drop-down list shows the document or template you want to affect. If you want the change to affect all documents, choose Normal.dot.
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Click the menu that contains the command, drag the command into the document area, and drop it.
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Click the Close button.
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Shift-click the File menu and choose Save All. If Word prompts you to save changes to Normal.dot, click the Yes button.
You can easily replace any item you remove from a menu or a toolbar. Start by choosing Tools » Customize, clicking the Commands tab, and selecting the document or template in the "Save in" drop-down list. To replace a single item, drag the command to the appropriate menu or toolbar. To reset a menu, right-click it and choose Reset from the shortcut menu. To reset a toolbar, select it on the Toolbars tab and click the Reset button.