Microsoft Office 2004 Toolbars
The TOOLBARS in Microsoft Office applications contain buttons which enable you to quickly perform a task with a single mouse click. By default, the STANDARD TOOLBAR appears above your document's TITLE BAR and below the MAIN MENU. Each Microsoft Office application has its own unique set of toolbars which can be customized according to your needs. You can add and remove buttons from a specific toolbar, create your own custom toolbars, hide or display specific toolbars, and move a toolbar to a different location on your screen. You can even create a floating palette from a toolbar. This document will use Word as the example application, however, the toolbar functionality is the same in Excel and PowerPoint.
To determine what a specific button does, place your mouse cursor over the button and a small, yellow definition box appears and explains the button's functionality.
By default, the STANDARD TOOLBAR is attached, or docked, to the bottom of the main menu. If you want to move a docked toolbar to a different location, click and hold down the mouse button on the MOVE handle, then drag the toolbar to the desired location. To change the shape of the toolbar (that is, align the buttons vertically or into any other rectangular pattern), drag by the tab in the lower right-hand corner.
Show and Hide The Toolbars
From the VIEW menu, scroll down to TOOLBARS, and a cascading menu appears which lists all available toolbars.
Use this menu to hide or show any given toolbar.
The items which have a checkmark before the name are currently displayed.
If you select an item with no check mark, you will display (or show) that toolbar.
If the item already has a check mark when you select it, you will hide the toolbar.
Customize Your Toolbars
You can rearrange your button display and place the buttons exactly where you like. You can add or delete buttons to suit your working needs.
To add or delete buttons from a toolbar, or move existing ones, go to the VIEW menu, then scroll to TOOLBARS, then to CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS/MENUS...
The CUSTOMIZE window then appears. Click once on the COMMANDS tab. (This window is also available via the TOOLS menu's CUSTOMIZE command; select CUSTOMIZE TOOLBARS/MENUS... from the cascading menu that appears)
The CATEGORIES of button types are listed on the right, and the button's function COMMANDS are listed on the left.
Click once to select the desired CATEGORY to view the list of commands within that category.
Next click on a command name in the COMMANDS section of the window and a description of that command appears in the bottom portion of the window.
To add a button to your toolbar, click and drag a command's icon onto the desired location on your toolbar. As you are dragging across the toolbar, a heavy, black vertical bar appears. Use this bar as a guide for placing your button in the desired location.
The toolbar will grow to accomodate the buttons you add.
If the button did not land exactly where you wanted it to, then click and drag it to the desired position. Use this same procedure to move around the existing buttons.
Not all commands have an icon associated with them. If you drag such a command to the toolbar, it appears as text.
To remove a button from a toolbar, while the CUSTOMIZE window is open, click and drag the unwanted button off the toolbar.
Once you have finished making changes to your toolbar contents, close the CUSTOMIZE window by clicking once the OK button.
Written by Teresa Hagan; Updated by Jordan McDonnell, '08