How in the Tech

Get Rid of the Annoying Microsoft Office Clipboard Bar

By Adam Myers ⋅ March 6, 2009 ⋅

Anyone that uses Microsoft Office day in and day out likely has a laundry list of annoyances. On the surface, each one is so relatively minor that many users may suggest to you to just let it go – Microsoft knows best right? At the end of the fictitious day, the pile has grown and your patience level has shrank. One such annoyance for me is actually billed as a feature – the clipboard bar! No sooner did Microsoft kill off the infamous Clippy have they introduced another annoyance of a similar name.

The clipboard bar appears, generally down the side of the active Office application window, after you’ve attempted to copy a few different items. The bar is a glorified clipboard item viewer, allowing you to selectively select copy and paste items in any order. Sounds pretty hand doesn’t it? There are a few problems that I see, which, as mentioned above, are minor but valid.

1. Computer users have been trained and conditioned that the Windows clipboard is singular. Find the item you wish to copy, then paste it to it’s new location. Copy and paste is a process that even less technical users are familiar with – changing it’s work-flow is confusing…
2. Confusing, but we are all capable of learning new processes. Except, the process is confined to Microsoft Office only! If this feature is so useful why has it not been included within Windows itself?
3. Lastly, the clipboard bar interferes with the Office interface and current task at hand; it breaks concentration when it appears out of nowhere.

Rather than rapidly finding the rather small x icon to close out the bar and resuming with your work, it’s actually possible to disable the functionality. At the  very bottom of the bar click the Options button and uncheck Show Office Clipboard. Alternatively, you can change the trigger action so that the clipboard appears on your cue.