Customizing a Toolbar

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You can customize toolbars by dragging unwanted buttons off or adding a new button, menu, or command.

What do you want to do?

Group related buttons and menus on a toolbar

Add or delete a toolbar button

Create a button for a command or other item

Change the width of a drop-down list on a toolbar

Customize a toolbar button

Troubleshoot the customize command

To group related buttons and menus on a toolbar

To group related buttons and menus, you can add a separator bar before the first and after the last button or menu in the group to distinguish the group from other buttons and menus on the toolbar.

  1. Display the toolbar on which you want to group related buttons and menus.

  2. On the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Toolbars tab. The Customize dialog box must remain open; however, you might need to move it out of your way.

  3. Right-click the button you want to be the left-most or top button of a group. Click Begin Group on the shortcut menu.

    To put a separator bar at the end of the group, repeat this step for the first button of the next group.

  4. To remove a separator bar, right-click the first button after the separator bar. Click Begin Group on the shortcut menu to clear the check mark and remove the separator bar.

To add or delete a toolbar button

  1. Display the toolbar you want to change.

  2. On the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Commands tab.

  3. Add a button by clicking the name of the category in the Categories box, and then dragging the button or item from the Buttons area to the displayed toolbar.

     – or – 

    To delete a button, drag it off the toolbar.

Notes   If you add a new button, command, or other item to a toolbar that does not have a button, button name, or button image associated with it, you will need to create one or more of these items for it.

When you delete a default button from a toolbar, the button is still available in the Customize dialog box (Commands tab, Deleted Commands or All Commands category). However, when you delete a toolbar button with a custom appearance, its appearance is permanently lost, although the command is still available (Customize dialog box, Commands tab).

To save a toolbar button with a custom appearance for later use, create a toolbar for storing unused buttons, move the button to this storage toolbar, and then hide the storage toolbar.

To create a button for a command or other item

  1. Display the toolbar you want to add a button to.

  2. On the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Commands tab.

  3. In the Categories box, click All Commands, and then click the command or other item in the list that you want to add to the toolbar.

  4. Drag the item to the toolbar you want to change.

Note   If the item does not have a default button, the Custom Button dialog box opens. Select an image for the button from the Buttons area, or use a custom image created in a graphics program, or create a button with text on it.

To change the width of a drop-down list on a toolbar

  1. On the Tools menu, click Customize, and then click the Toolbars tab.

  2. Click the drop-down list box on a toolbar.

  3. Point to the left or right border of the list box. When the mouse pointer changes to a double-headed arrow, drag the border of the list box to change its width.

To troubleshoot the Customize command