To switch back to print layout view, click the relevant icon in the status bar, or go to View > Print Layout. The option was not present when the annoying buttons were introduced but it was added later.To switch to draft view, go to View > Draft.Switching to draft view is clumsy in itself (Microsoft inexplicably took away the Draft icon from the icons on the right of the status bar several versions ago), but it may be the solution you need if youРІР‚в„ўre fiddling with the rows/columns on a large table or on several tables: However, I did come across a way to disable them that may be useful if you have a lot of table manipulation to do, and thatРІР‚в„ўs to switch to draft view, where these tools wonРІР‚в„ўt appear. More times than not, when I want to select a row/column to delete it, I end up clicking one of these РІР‚ВhelpfulРІР‚в„ў icons and add a new row/column instead, which means I now have to delete two rows/columns! This is what one of these not so helpful icons looks like when you hover your cursor to the left of a row:Р”Р„ quick search of the main websites for Word issues indicates that thereРІР‚в„ўs no way to turn these things off. I suspect they added this icon for those using touch screens, but they are more of a curse than a help to desktop users with a keyboard and mouse. Since Word 2013 (Word for Windows, not sure about Mac), you havenРІР‚в„ўt been able to select a table row or column easily from outside the row/column, without inadvertently inserting what youРІР‚в„ўre trying to select! Instead of hovering the cursor immediately to the left of the row/above the column and then clicking to select, Microsoft added these (not so) helpful tools that insert a new row/table, and you have to fiddle with the mouse a bit to move the cursor a tad further away to get table row/column select mode. IРІР‚в„ўll leave the original post here for the workaround for those on earlier versions that donРІР‚в„ўt have this option. Update: You can now turn this off in recent versions of Word for Office 365 (possibly Word 2016, and 2019 too)! Thanks to Lene Fredborg, who commented on this post (below), the solution is File > Options > Advanced, Display section, clear the Show pop-up buttons for adding rows and tables.

Create buttons in word 2016