As a working technology teacher, I get hundreds of questions from parents about their home computers, how to do stuff, how to solve problems. Each Tuesday, I’ll share one of those with you. They’re always brief and always focused. Enjoy!
Every time I click on a drop down menu in MS Office (Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint), it shows only some of the choices. How can I see all of them?
How often has some good-hearted soul who’s trying to help you with something techie said, Select the menu command Edit (or whichever it might be). Now click on… And they rattle of a choice that you don’t see on your drop down menu. Right there, you’re stuck.
Here’s what probably happened. The menu commands are the words at the top of your program (i.e., MS Word). When you click on them, they drop down a bunch of choice. You make your selection from those. If you click on the menu command, and see a double arrow at the bottom, that means there are choices Word is hiding because you don’t use them often. You could click the double arrow to reveal those, or you could do the following:
- Go to the menu command Tools
- Select Customize (toward the bottom of the list)
- When the dialogue box comes up, select the tab for
Now, every time you select a drop down menu, it will fully drop down.
Questions you want answered? Leave a comment here and I’ll answer it within the next thirty days.
Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-18 technology for 30 years. She is the editor/author of over a hundred tech ed resources including a K-12 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum. She is an adjunct professor in tech ed, Master Teacher, webmaster for four blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice, CSTA presentation reviewer, freelance journalist on tech ed topics, contributor to NEA Today, and author of the tech thrillers, To Hunt a Sub and Twenty-four Days. You can find her resources at Structured Learning.
