Microsoft Word displays a vertical scrollbar on the right side of the window and, if you are zoomed in far enough, a horizontal scrollbar at the bottom. These are essential for navigating long essays and reports. However, if you rely entirely on your mouse wheel, trackpad gestures, or keyboard arrows to navigate, these grey bars represent unnecessary visual clutter that eats into your writing workspace. If you want a completely minimalist, distraction-free environment, you can choose to hide the scrollbars entirely.
How to Hide the Scrollbars
You can turn the scrollbars on and off deep within Word’s Advanced settings menu. This change will apply to all documents you open on your computer.
- Open Microsoft Word.
- Click on the File tab located in the top-left corner of the window.
- Look at the very bottom of the left-hand sidebar and click on Options. (You may need to click ‘More…’ first to reveal Options).
- The “Word Options” dialogue box will appear. In the left-hand menu pane, click on Advanced.
- Scroll exactly halfway down the long list of settings until you locate the section titled Display.
- Look for the two checkboxes labelled:
- Show horizontal scroll bar
- Show vertical scroll bar
- Click these checkboxes to uncheck them.
- Click the OK button at the bottom right of the window.
The scrollbars will instantly vanish, providing a slightly wider and cleaner view of your document. If you ever need to use them again (for example, if you disconnect your mouse and only have a trackpad without scrolling enabled), simply return to this menu and re-check the boxes.