My private Microsoft Office check-list [updated]

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Whether it is Office 2010 or 2013 (haven’t tried newer and already forgot about earlier) and whether it is on Windows 7, 8.1 or 10, the set of my preferred configuration options and elements is usually the same. So I decided to write it down here to keep track of it whenever I have to fresh-install Microsoft Office anywhere.

This article covers only configuration of each Office component that I use. For other things that I usually do or change during fresh-install of Office, please, refer to this article.

Note that this is an updated version of this post that includes items in the check-list for:

  • Office 2013 under Windows 7,
  • Office 2013 under Windows 10 and
  • Office 365 under Windows 10.

All of these versions ships with sometimes completely different configuration sets (even for Office 2013 under two different versions of Windows) and thus you may find many options listed in this article missing or already set to desired values.

Microsoft Word

  1. General group:
    • User Interface options section:
      • uncheck Show Mini Toolbar on Selection
      • check Collapse the Microsoft Search box by default
      • uncheck Enable modern comments
    • Personalize your copy of Microsoft office section:
      • change User Name and Initials, if anything is wrong
      • check Always use these values regardless of sign in to Office checkbox
      • set Office Background to Circles and Shapes or any other that suits you
      • set Office Theme to Light Gray or any other that suits you
      • options in this group can be set from any program (i.e. Excel) and affects all of Office components
    • LinkedIn Features section: uncheck Enable LinkedIn features in my Office applications checkbox
    • Start up options section: uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts option
  2. Proofing group:
    • AutoCorrect Options button: add auto-replacement of — into —
  3. Save group:
    • uncheck AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in Word
    • check Don’t show back stage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts option
    • uncheck Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required option
    • check Save to Computer by default option
    • set Default local file location field to: C:\Trash
    • set Default personal templates location field to correct value to enable own templates, if you use them
  4. Advanced group:
    • Editing options section:
      • check Use the Insert key to control overtype mode option
      • uncheck Enable click and type checkbox
    • Cut, copy, and paste section:
    • Show document content section: set Field shading option to Always
  5. Quick Access Toolbar group:
    • remove Touch/Mouse Mode item
    • disable auto save mode and remove AutoSave item
    • add Publish as PDF or XPS item from File tab
    • consider adding Repeat item from Popular Commands tab

Note that there are two Redo buttons — one with submenu and one without. The second one turns magically into Repeat button in certain situations. Add this button, if you wish to actually add Repeat button. Add the first one, if you want to add “real” Redo button (welcome to Microsoft world).

Microsoft Excel

  1. General group:
    • User Interface options section:
      • uncheck Show Mini Toolbar on Selection
      • uncheck Show Quick Analysis options on selection
      • check Collapse the Microsoft Search box by default
    • When creating new workbooks section: set Use this as the default font to Roboto
    • Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section: see above
    • LinkedIn Features section: uncheck Enable LinkedIn features in my Office applications checkbox
    • Start up options section: uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts option
  2. Save group (as above):
    • uncheck AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in Excel
    • check Don’t show back stage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts option
    • uncheck Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required option
    • check Save to Computer by default option
    • set Default local file location field to: C:\Trash,
    • set Default personal templates location field to c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel\XLSTART\
  3. Advanced group:
    • Editing options section: set Direction option to Right
  4. Quick Access Toolbar group:
    • remove Touch/Mouse Mode item
    • disable and remove AutoSave item
    • add Publish as PDF or XPS item from File tab
    • consider adding Repeat item from Popular Commands tab

Note that there is only one Redo button and Excel is the only Office component where Repeat functionality does not exist (not

Microsoft PowerPoint

  1. General group:
    • User Interface options section:
      • uncheck Show Mini Toolbar on Selection
      • check Collapse the Microsoft Search box by default
    • Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section: see above
    • LinkedIn Features section: uncheck Enable LinkedIn features in my Office applications checkbox
    • Start up options section: uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts option
  2. Save group (as above):
    • uncheck AutoSave files stored in the Cloud by default in PowerPoint
    • check Don’t show back stage when opening or saving files with keyboard shortcuts option
    • uncheck Show additional places for saving, even if sign-in may be required option
    • check Save to Computer by default option
    • set Default local file location field to: C:\Trash
    • set Default personal templates location field to correct value to enable own templates, if you use them
  3. Quick Access Toolbar group:
    • remove Touch/Mouse Mode item
    • disable and remove AutoSave item
    • add Publish as PDF or XPS item from File tab
    • consider adding Repeat item from Popular Commands tab

Note that there are two Redo buttons — one with submenu and one without (see Word section above for details).

Microsoft Outlook

  1. General group:
    • User Interface options section: uncheck Enable Live Preview option,
    • Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office section: set Office Theme to Light Gray,
    • the last option can be set from any program and affects all of them.
  2. Mail group:
    • Compose messages section:
      • Spelling and Autocorrect… button:
        • Proofing_ group >AutoCorrect Optionsbutton: add auto-replacement of—into—`.
        • `Advanced_ group:
          • Editing options section: check Use the Insert key to control overtype mode option,
          • Cut, copy, and paste section:
            • set Pasting from other programs option to Keep Text Only,
            • set Insert/paste pictures as option to Top and bottom.
      • Signatures… button: add default signature.
    • Outlook panes section > Reading Pane… button: set Wait 5 seconds before marking item as read option.
      Send messages section: uncheck Delete meeting requests and notifications from Inbox after responding option.
  3. People group:
    • Names and filling section: set Default “File As” order to First Last.
  4. Advanced group:
    • Outlook panes section: Navigation… button:
      • set Maximum number of visible items option to 3,
      • check Compact navigation option,
      • set Display in this order list to: Mail, Calendar, People and remaining ones.
    • International options section:
      • set Prefer encoding for outgoing messages to Unicode (UTF-8),
      • set Prefer encoding for outgoing messages vCards to Unicode (UTF-8).
  5. Quick Access Toolbar group:
    • add new items using down arrow next to last toolbar button:
      • “triple-set”: Reply, Reply All and Forward,
      • Delete.
    • add new items using More Commands… menu item:
      • add Move item from Home (Mail) tab as first item,
      • add Move to Other Folder item from Home (Mail) tab as second item,
      • add New Email item from Popular Commands tab as second to last item.
    • remove Touch/Mouse Mode item.
    • final order: Move, Move to Other Folder, Reply, Reply All, Forward, Delete, New Email and Send/Receive All Folders.
  6. Trust Center group > Microsoft Outlook Trust Center section > Trust Center Settings… button > Attachment Handling group > Attachment and Document Preview section: check Turn off Attachment Preview checkbox.
  7. In addition to all above Outlook settings done in File > Options you also have to:

Note that changes in 6th point (Trust Center group) requires Microsoft Outlook restart in order to take place. All other changes listed here are applied at once.

Trusted Locations

If your templates uses some macros then you may want to add the folder(s) where you store your documents, sheets, presentations etc. as “safe location”. For example, you can add entire OneDrive this way. This is to avoid seeing warnings like below:

Usually, Office components shows such warning only once per each document (first time it is opened) and then remember that this particular one is “safe” (when you click Enable Content, otherwise this warning will be shown upon each opening of such file). If you have many of such documents then adding entire folder as a “trusted location” seems the best option.

To do this:

  1. Click File tab and then click Options
  2. Sselect Trust Center group, click Trust Center Settings… button
  3. Go to Trusted Locations group and click Add new location…
  4. Click Browse… and select desired folder (i.e., C:\Users\[username]\OneDrive)
  5. Check Subfolders of this location are also trusted checkbox
  6. Click OK three times and restart all Office programs (close and reopen)

This setting is not Office-wide meaning that you must repeat above steps for each program out of Office package that you’re actively using and in which you’re using a macro-enabled templates.

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