The Mini Toolbar and Live Preview are features in Word introduced in Word 2007 and continued in Word 2010 and 2013. They can be useful for quick formatting and to preview possible formats. However, if these features annoy you, they are easy to disable.
The Mini Toolbar in Word 2013 pops up when you select text in a document and provides quick access to formatting tools.
Live Preview allows you to preview how a specific feature, such as style sets, will affect your document as you hover over the different choices for that feature.
To disable one or both of these features in Word 2013, click the FILE tab.
Click Options in the list on the left side of the screen.
Make sure the General option is selected on the left side of the Word Options dialog box. In the User Interface options section, select the Show Mini Toolbar on selection check box so there is NO check mark in the box to disable the Mini Toolbar. Select the Enable Live Preview check box so it is also empty to disable this feature. Click OK to accept the changes and close the Word Options dialog box.
These settings are also available in the same location in Word 2010 and 2007, although the General screen on the Word Options dialog box in Word 2007 is called Popular.
If you find you need one of these features again, simply open the Word Options dialog box and select the desired check box again to enable the feature.
