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A Word 2007 annoyance: disappearing vertical scroll bar

103 Comments

This is odd. A couple of times in the last week Microsoft Word has decided I no longer require a vertical scroll bar. The only way I know to turn it back on is to go into Word options, Advanced, and check the option Show vertical scroll bar.

But how is it getting unchecked? My first assumption was that I must have inadvertently pressed an obscure key combination that toggles the vertical scroll bar, but I can’t find any such shortcut. A bug?

By the way, did you know you can get a complete list of Word commands and shortcuts? Click the Developer ribbon, then Macros, then select Word commands from the Macros in drop-down list. Select the macro ListCommands, then click Run. Word will offer you a document containing either Current Keyboard Settings, or All Commands. The All Commands list is 46 pages long, and contains roughly 2000 commands, none of which hides the vertical scroll bar.

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103 thoughts on “A Word 2007 annoyance: disappearing vertical scroll bar”

  1. My vertical scroll bar disppeared last week, and it was driving me to distraction. After many searches, i finally landed on this page and solved my problem!

    Thanks so much!

  4. Thanks for this information. I, too, lost my scroll bar and couldn’t find how to restore them even after looking in Help. Interesting that a google search is more effective than the same search within the MS Word Help system!

  5. THANKS!

    And BTW, this works in Word: Mac 2008… the vertical/horizontal scroll bar check boxes are located in Preferences/Authoring and Proofing Tools/View.

  6. Thank you so much…
    The microsoft office help didn’t even talk about this!!!
    It’s been 1 month I couldn’t figure it out.

  7. Thanks for the post. I was annoyed this morning to find that my scroll bars dissapeared.

    Quick note: to get to the word options in Word 2007 there is a button along the bottom right of the system menu.

  8. SuperThankyou from me too. I also agree with what Rick and Lelie said about not being able to find it through the ms word help window. I mean, the bug is onething, not including such rudimentary help functionality is typical MS crap we all have to put up with. Always promising more, Never delivering at even the basics (At least people who paid up so much money for vista ultimate get a wordpad that looks and works like it did in Windows 3.1, think abou that…). You search the help for vertical bar, and you get some references to graphs and vertical axis…Can’t they have someone check that they ‘ve at least included all the options available in the options window in their help section. How hard is that do?

    But this is what happens when a bunch of bozos become a virtual monopoly.

  9. Really appreciate this help. My son is so condescending when helping with computer glitches and you solution (with the Mac addendum) worked like a charm.

  10. Related but slightly different problem is that I lost the ability to vertically scroll using my integrated mouse on my laptop (called the trackpoint). Prior to upgrading to Word 2007, I was able to hold down the center mouse button and then use the red trackpoint button in the center of my keyboard to scroll up/down without having to use the vertical scroll bar all the way over on the right side of the screen. I use am IBM thinkpad laptop, X60s model.

    Anyone know how to fix that? Any help much appreciated.

  11. Ditto to what others wrote – same problem, couldn’t figure it out and spent hours trying. Thanks.

  12. Thanks so much. I have no idea how I lost the verticle scroll bar, but it vanished into thin air. I tried the MS Word help and they had NOTHING on verticle scroll bars. I checked in Google and within 1 minute I found your page and got my scroll bars back!
    Muchisimos Thank Yous!

  13. Hi there, and thanks for commenting on this. Are you able to scroll up and down using your mouse in MS Word, while no words are selected? (I could do this in Word 97 and it was a BIG help to me), and having to use the scroll bar SUCKS when there’s a handy little wheel right there on the mouse. Any ideas? Please help if you know, it’s a MAJOR inconvenience not to be able to scroll with my mouse anymore.

  14. And again, many thanks for the solution. Shame Windows Help did not even register when searching on a scrollbar.

  15. I’d like to know what causes it. I think it is connected with reading mode – it seems to be triggered by double-clicking a Word attachment in Outlook (in my experience).

    Tim

  16. Thanks, I agree with everyone’s comments and wish the help menu with MSFT would help its users with this problem. I was a very frustrated champ until a friend helped me find this page.

  17. yeah, I find these instructions helpful as well, it took me only two minutes to find ‘vertical tool bar’ option. In my opinion google search is much better than Ms office help option.

  19. thank you so much! i couldnt find how to get it back for the life of me.

    thank god i have the stupid thing back.

  20. This is so handy! I’ve been searching for a long time. Microsoft Help did not help! So much for its name!
    Thanx a million!

  21. Thanks! The vertical scroll bar disappeared yesterday, and I have no clue how it happened. As usual, the MS help was absolutely no help.

  22. Thank you so much for the tip. Only after losing this scroll bar did i appreciate how much i rely on it.
    Long Live Google Search!

  24. Thank you!!! You never appreciate something until it is gone, right??

    I appreciate your one-click fix!!

  25. Thank you for this wonderful help in restoring the vertical tool bar. I have been going nuts trying to figure out what happened!!

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