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I'm wondering whether there is any option/control to disable the automatic hiding (fade-out effect) of vertical scrollbar that happens after few seconds of mouse inactivity in Microsoft Word 2013?

I couldn't find an option/solution on this.

NOTE: I also have the option 'Show vertical scroll bar' checked under File > Options > Advanced > Display.

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  • 1
    I was trying to look for a way to disable this too. I've tried disabling hardware acceleration in Office, and I've also tried disabling window control animations from Windows itself. All that does is make the scrollbar disappear instead of fade out. Looks like we're out of luck unless someone can find a registry hack.
    – BoffinBrain
    Mar 5, 2015 at 15:40
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    Excellent question. I don't want objects flashing in and out of visibility when I move the mouse around. If I want something hidden, I will minimize the window!
    – bgStack15
    Oct 9, 2015 at 13:00
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    Whoever came up with that idea should be fired. This is why there are multiple viewing modes in Word, dumb developers.
    – Andrew
    Sep 6, 2017 at 14:46

4 Answers 4

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There is a hack that stops the scrollbar from disappearing, though I'm not sure whether Microsoft considers it a bug or a feature:

  1. Go into "VIEW | Read Mode".
  2. Select "VIEW | Layout | Paper Layout".
  3. Press Escape to get back into Print Layout, and then the scrollbar shouldn't disappear.

To do this more quickly, get used to typing:

  1. Alt-W-F
  2. Alt-W-L-P
  3. Esc
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    Wow !!! That solves the very long inconvenience that was bothering me for sometime. As you had also indicated, I too guess that it should be a bug, however that indirectly solves this issue here.
    – Gnanam
    Aug 1, 2016 at 17:47
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    Any solution for Word 2016? There is no "File; Read mode" here.
    – ygoe
    Aug 22, 2016 at 18:38
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    @ygoe Read Mode option is available under 'View' menu in Word 2016. Or, you can find this in the bottom right status bar, which is the first symbol that looks like a book.
    – Gnanam
    Aug 22, 2016 at 19:01
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    @ygoe Yes, you're right. This is not a permanent fix, this comes as a handy workaround in my case though.
    – Gnanam
    Aug 23, 2016 at 8:23
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    In Word 2013, the "Read mode" option is not in the FILE menu, but on the VIEW ribbon. Consider editing the answer.
    – David Balažic
    Jan 8, 2018 at 9:44
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Jez’s answer is good, but it is rather annoying that you have to do this every time you start Word, so I just made a macro (by recording the keystrokes) and then put the macro on the Home tab of the Ribbon.

Here's the macro:

Sub Fix_Scrollbar()
'
' Fix_Scrollbar Macro
'
'
    ActiveWindow.View.ReadingLayout = Not ActiveWindow.View.ReadingLayout
    Selection.EscapeKey
    If ActiveWindow.View.SplitSpecial = wdPaneNone Then
        ActiveWindow.ActivePane.View.Type = wdPrintView
    Else
        ActiveWindow.View.Type = wdPrintView
    End If
End Sub

So now it’s just one click when Word starts ...

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  • If you call this function in the documents Open or New Events, then this will run every time you have a document open.
    – Mark3308
    Jan 1, 2018 at 20:03
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It seems there it's no solution for your problem at the moment:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/office/forum/office_2013_release-word/word-vertical-scrollbar-auto-hiding-in-print/2656ff19-ebc6-4f3f-8611-121bfd4072ab?page=1&tm=1434983755116

I disabled the animations (smooth movements) in all the Office 2013 and I have the same auto-hiding of the scrollbar you're refering.

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This is a partial solution, but it's the solution I prefer because my vertical scrollbar now stays where I can see it at all times. Go to the "View" tab at the top of the screen. Go to the "Views" section on the left. On the right side of that box, click "Draft". It resizes your window to "text width" basically and disallows the scrollbar from vanishing while pausing / typing.

Hope this helps.

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  • When comparing documents, the "Read Mode" suggested in other answers is not available (at least in Word 2013), so this is a good solution for that case.
    – David Balažic
    Nov 14, 2019 at 14:29

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