Bring back the Object Browser
Word 2013 eliminated the "browse arrows" and Select Browse Object button from the vertical scroll bar. Although partial replacements for this utility are available in the Navigation pane and Go To dialog, none of them are as convenient as the simple browse arrows.
A search for "browse object" in the Word forum at Microsoft Community (http://goo.gl/eC3IZy) shows that many users are puzzled by and/or unhappy about the loss of this utility.
Suzanne S. Barnhill
shared this idea
Thanks for your feedback. We do not have plans to add object browser to Word at this time. Here is an alternative may help you to browse objects quickly in Word.
Home → Find → Go To
Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and continuing to work with us on improving our products for customers worldwide.
62 comments
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Kevin Degrood
commented
Ed, you are correct: "I think Microsoft changes things just for the sake of changing them. There is absolutely no reason to deprive your users of this incredibly handy utility. This change is completely counterproductive."
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Anonymous
commented
Bring back the Select Browse Object. I used it with CTRL Page Down to scroll page by page through a document. I now have to do CTRL G, set it to page and click Next. Then use CTRL Page Down as I used to. It's ridiculous it has been removed. The programmers are obviously not users, if they were they would never have removed it.
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Lisa Wilke-Thissen
commented
Press F5 or Ctrl+G to choose to browse to special objects. Alternatively, you can apply Shortcut Keys e. g. to the commands GoToNextPage, GoToNextFootnote, ...
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Ed
commented
Why, oh why, would you remove the Select Browse Object button from the vertical scroll bar?
I think Microsoft changes things just for the sake of changing them. There is absolutely no reason to deprive your users of this incredibly handy utility. This change is completely counterproductive.
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Anonymous
commented
I just don't understand why you would remove this! I used it constantly, particularly in big documents.
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Otto Holz
commented
When you have two documents up for comparison and editing, such as when you want to compare what a witness said 5 years ago in deposition to what they are saying now, and when you are trying to do this on a laptop, screen space is at a premium. Your removal of the "Select browse" button degrades the usefulness of your product. Using the "find function" with it's large window, takes up too much space. I regret to say this degradation is all too common with regard to the evolution of Microsoft products. I cannot imagine who you are using for Beta tests, but they don't seem to have real-world experience. Your products become ever more complicated, and more difficult to use quickly and efficiently for the intense textual user.
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Steve Keeling
commented
I don't understand why the object browser was taken away from us. It's something that I used to use almost once every five minutes while editing documents. Crazy!
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David in Mississippi
commented
PLEASE Bring Back the Object Browser!
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Anon
commented
First, they kind of force us to have to upgrade. We tried to purchase a new license for our previous version, because we all loved it, and it was pretty difficult. So, we bite the bullet and upgrade to Word 2013, only to find it is inconvenient and less user friendly. At the very least, ask US, the consumers what we like and dislike before making foolish, unnecessary changes! It doesn't even benefit Microsoft to refuse to leave those arrows where they were--in a place we can all use them.
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Brian berndt
commented
That was a terrible decision to remove the object browser, and just as bad the response "We do not have plans to add object browser to Word ."
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Geoff
commented
Typically user unfriendly complicated techy answer to a frequent user need to get back from find to page scroll :(
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Anonymous
commented
Another useless decision.
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Mark O
commented
Yet again, MS demonstrates how much control they have over our lives with no regard for the effect on us. I'm curious to know how they came to the decision to remove the Browse Object button. I'm guessing it was a few developers in a meeting who decided that removing it was "what the people wanted" even though they never heard anything about it from their customers.
I hate MS so much...but then, in fairness, I hate all mega companies who treat us like we exist primarily for them. -
Marianne
commented
I’m constantly baffled by mega companies deciding to remove features that make life for people f.ex. handling large documents SOO much easier. The Browse Object Tool was one of these features, and having just upgraded to MS 365 I’m really frustrated that this has been deprecated.
Why does Microsoft keep making working life more difficult. Yes, there are work-arounds to the Browse Object but they are time consuming and not convenient at all. Shame on you! -
Joanne M. Orzech
commented
Agree! Thanks Suzanne.
I also don't like that "Select Table" was removed from the right-click context menu.... :(
Joanne Orzech
former MS Word MVP -
Anonymous
commented
I work for the Navy and, because of budget and security concerns, we are always WAAAAY late to upgrade software. We just recently upgraded from Office 2007 to 2016. I am STUNNED that the browse arrows are gone! I agree with all the other comments here. For power users with long, complex documents those buttons were godsends. MS gained absolutely NO real estate by removing them. Please reconsider and bring them back.
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Charles Kenyon
commented
The GoTo dialog will reset the browse object acted on by the PgUp & PgDn keys.
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Anonymous
commented
ADMIN Bot You are not listening the improvement would be to bring it BACK!
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Anonymous
commented
I use control page down and now there is no way to do this because you can't clear the find object. Even when you go to find and select clear, this does not work. This is a really bad thing to have eliminated.
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Peter
commented
So... in the absence of the object browser how do users now easily find and navigate through all field codes one by one in the document? e.g. Endnote inserted reference codes or other forms of user inserted field codes. The object browser was great for that and I've yet to find an easy alternative. Maybe users should just drop plans to use MS products altogether given a whole bunch of useful features keep getting scrapped or buried so deep they are near impossible to find.