This step-by-step article describes how to reset a menu in
a Microsoft Office program back to its default first-run condition. In
addition, this article describes the following:
- What the "Personalized Menus and Toolbars" feature
is.
- Two methods for resetting a menu in an Office program back
to its first-run condition.
- Important notes about renaming the PIP files.
- How to turn off the "Personalized Menus and Toolbars"
feature.
Office programs have a feature called "Personalized Menus and
Toolbars". This feature is shared across all Office programs.
The
"Personalized Menus and Toolbars" feature evaluates what menu commands you use
and displays only those items that are used most frequently on a shortened
version of each menu. By default, when you click a menu and rest the mouse
pointer over the menu title, the menu expands to display all menu items.
NOTE: The menu expands only if the
Show full menus after a
short delay option is selected. (On the
View menu, point to
Toolbars, click
Customize, and then click the
Options tab.)
Similarly, toolbars intelligently share space on
the screen, based on the toolbar buttons that you use most frequently. As a
result, toolbar buttons are promoted or demoted (displayed or hidden), based on
a hierarchy that enables multiple toolbars to share a single row. When you
click the slider button (>>) on a toolbar, the complete toolbar is
quickly displayed. After you click a specific toolbar button, that button is
added to the visible portion of the toolbar.
NOTE: When a recently used button is added to the visible portion of
the toolbar, a toolbar button that is not recently used may be moved to the
hidden portion of the toolbar.
Where Are Personalized Menu and Toolbar Settings Saved?
The "Personalized Menus and Toolbars" settings are saved in a
Program name.pip file. After a change is made to a
menu, the change is stored in the .pip file, which is in one of the following
locations:
- Microsoft Windows 2000 or Microsoft Windows XP:
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
- Microsoft Windows 98 or Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Me):
C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
- Microsoft Windows 98, Microsoft Windows Me with profiles enabled, or Microsoft Windows NT 4.0:
C:\WINDOWS\Profiles\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
The PIP files are named as listed in the following table.
Collapse this tableExpand this table
| Microsoft Office Program | Microsoft Office XP PIP File Name | Microsoft Office 2000 PIP File Name | Microsoft Office 2003 PIP File Name |
| Microsoft Access | Access10.pip | Access.pip | Access11.pip |
| Microsoft Excel | Excel10.pip | Excel.pip | Excel11.pip |
| Microsoft FrontPage | FP10.pip | FP.pip | FP11.pip |
| Microsoft Outlook | MSOut10.pip | MSOut.pip | MSOut11.pip |
| Microsoft
PowerPoint | PowerP10.pip | PowerPoi.pip | PowerP11.pip |
| Microsoft
Publisher | Publishe.pip | Publishe.pip | Publis11.pip |
| Microsoft Visual Basic
Editor | VB10.pip | VB.pip | VB11.pip |
| Microsoft Word | Word10.pip | Word.pip | Word11.pip |
| | |
How to Reset the Menus to First-Run Condition
These procedures only reset the menus to their first-run
condition and do not affect your toolbars.
To reset the menus to
their first-run condition, use either of the following methods.
Method 1: Reset My Usage Data (Recommended Method)
- On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Customize.
- On the Options tab, click Reset my usage data.
- Click Yes to the following message:
This will delete the record of the commands you've used in this application and restore the default set of visible commands to the menus and toolbars. It will not undo any explicit customizations. Are you sure you want to do this?
- Click Close to close the Customize dialog box.
Method 2: Rename the Program PIP File
- Right-click Start and then click Explore on the shortcut menu.
- Browse to the folder that is specified in the "Where Are
Personalized Menus and Toolbar Settings Saved?" section of this
article.
- Right-click the program PIP file for which you want to
reset menu usage, and then click Rename on the shortcut menu.
- Rename the PIP file to Program
name.old, and then press ENTER.
IMPORTANT NOTES ABOUT RENAMING PIP FILES After the Setup and configuration of the Microsoft
Office programs, a default set of
Program name.pip
files is saved in the following folder:
Office XP
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10
Office 2000
C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office
Office 2003C
:/Documents and Settings/<profile name>/Application Data/Microsoft/Office
If you rename these program default PIP files (not recommended),
the Office program attempts to reconfigure itself with the Windows Installer
program, and either of the following may occur.
How to Turn Off the "Personalized Menus and Toolbars" Feature
IMPORTANT: Following this procedure in one Office program changes
all of your Office programs to use full menus.
To turn off
the "Personalized Menus and Toolbars" feature and display only full menus in
your Office programs, follow these steps:
- Start one of the Office programs listed at the beginning of
this article.
- On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Customize.
- On the Options tab, click to select the Always show full menus
check box, and then click Close.
For more information about menus, click
Microsoft program Help on the
Help menu, type
menus in the Office Assistant or the Answer Wizard, and then click
Search to view the topics returned.