1. Customizing Your Toolbars in Microsoft Office Lunch and Learn: June 7, 2005

2. Introduction To enhance your productivity in MS Office applications (Word, Excel PowerPoint, etc.) you may want to add regularly used functions to your toolbar(s) and/or apply keystrokes. For the purpose of this presentation, you’ll see an example in Microsoft Word.

3. Plan Ahead Determine what feature or tool you would like to use and take note of its location in the menus. For example, you would access the View menu in Word if you wanted to jump to the Headers and Footers.

4. Add a New Tool to a Toolbar

5. Access the Customize Toolbar Feature Access the View menu, select Toolbars and then Customize. Ensure that you are on the Commands tab.

6. Find the Tool You Need Select the appropriate menu group in the Categories section on the left side of the window. Find the specific item in the Commands section on the right side of the window.

7. Access the Customize Toolbar Feature Click and drag the tool/command of your choice to an existing toolbar. Note that a cursor will appear on the toolbar before you release your mouse button. This cursor will highlight where you are about to place your new tool.

8. Place Your New Tool on a Toolbar Click and drag the tool/command of your choice to an existing toolbar. Note that a cursor will appear on the toolbar before you release your mouse button. This cursor will highlight where you are about to place your new tool.

9. Place Your New Tool on a Toolbar Find the new tool on your toolbar. It will have a (temporary) thick black border around it. Note: If you had difficulty dropping the tool on your toolbar, ensure that you were trying to place it to the left of the right-most drop-down arrow.

10. Customize Your New Tool Right-Click the new tool to obtain its properties. A new menu will pop-up menu will appear. Note some of your options:  Name (tool tip popup)  Change button image  Text only  Image and text

11. Customize Your New Tool Change button properties as you see fit. This pop-up menu will only be available if the Customize window is still open. Click the Close button on the Customize window to finish. Use the button as needed.

12. Assign a Keyboard Shortcut

13. Access the Customize Options Open the Customize window again (View | Toolbars | Customize). Ensure that you are on the Commands tab. Click the Keyboard button.

14. Find the Tool You Need Find the appropriate menu in the Categories section on the left side of the window. Find the appropriate tool in the Commands section on the right side of the window.

15. Assign a Keyboard Shortcut to a Tool Place your cursor in the input box for Press New Shortcut Key. Press a keystroke combination that you might want to use for the program feature.

16. Assign a Keyboard Shortcut to a Tool Note whether the keystroke is already assigned to another function. If it is not, you will see the word [unassigned]. Repeat with other keystrokes as needed. Click the Assign button. Click the Close button on each screen to finish.