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The Mini toolbar is a floating window which automatically pops up whenever you highlight text. Initially all the options it contains are conveniently dimmed. However, as soon as you position the cursor over its controls, the Mini toolbar becomes activated.

It contains a number of options for formatting your text. All of these options can be found in the Home tab of the Word Ribbon. The top row of icons allows you to change the font, size and colour of our text and also contains Word’s nifty Format Painter. The Format Painter allows you to copy the format of the selected text to other areas of your document.

The second row of the Mini toolbar contains buttons for making text bold, italic, centre aligned. It also has options for changing the colour of the highlighted text, indenting text and inserting bullets.

In short, the Mini toolbar offers a very convenient way of quickly formatting your text without having to go back to the Ribbon to find the options you’re looking for. However, there may be times when you will find it inconvenient. This is particularly likely when using the drag-and-drop facility within Microsoft Word.

This useful feature allows you to highlight text and simply drag it to a new location. However, what you sometimes find is that, as you are about to drag, your cursor collides with the Mini toolbar and instead of dragging your text you end up changing its format.

As a Word user, you’ll decide whether you like the Mini toolbar facility. If you decide it is more trouble than it’s worth, Word allows you to deactivate this facility. From the Office button, choose Word Options. In the Popular category, the very first option is “Show Mini Toolbar on selection”. If you have had enough of the Mini toolbar, simply deactivate this option. Now, whenever you highlight text, the Mini toolbar will not appear.

The creators of Word 2007 obviously believe that you will eventually come round and become a fan of the Mini toolbar because, even when you have asked Word not to display the Mini toolbar, it is still possible to show it by simply right-clicking on selected text.

The writer of this article is a developer and trainer with a UK IT training company offering Microsoft Word 2007 Classes, as well as Word VBA training at their central London training centre.