Computer Tutor: Tips & Tricks
Customizing MS Office Toolbars

Microsoft Office is far & away the most popular of the office suites out there.  Microsoft has seen to that.   And there's no doubt about it ... Office, especially the full version with the Access database, is probably one of the most useful software tools, especially for a small office or home-office.

But why take it 'as is' out of the box when you can customize Office and have a suite to suit your own particular needs?  What to do?

Let's start with something that can have an impact on the everyday work you do: customize your Office toolbars.  ...

How to Customize Existing Office Toolbars
Don't fret.  We're not talking about writing programming code here.  Simply by using a few menu commands ... and a little drag 'n' drop ... you can end up with toolbars to make your most common Office tasks more accessible ... all with a mouse click or two.

The Same procedure for Word or Excel ...
   The task is the same for either program, simply ...

1. Click View from the menu bar, then ...

2. Choose Toolbars ... Customize ...

At this point, you'll see the tab'd Toolbars list, with {usually} the 'Standard' & 'Formatting' toolbars checked at the top, and the 'Menu' toolbar checked at the bottom of the list.  In addition to the Toolbars tab, you'll also see two other tabs -- one for Commands & one for Options.   ...

3. Click the Commands tab. ...

For each of the Categories on the left of the Commands window {File, Edit, View, etc.}, there are lists of Commands on the right. The task is to ...

4. Scroll down the list of commands methodically, i.e., click on the first category in the left pane {File}, then, by scroll down the list of commands in the right pane.
5. When you come upon a command you'd like to have available on your toolbar, simply left-click on it and hold the mouse button down while dragging the icon of the command {or, in some cases, the text} up to the toolbar.

That's it. ...

It's easy ... simply

1. Click on the Toolbars tab & choose New.
2. At the window that pops up, give it a name, and     be sure the lower option says 'Make Toolbar available to: Normal.dot ... That's the default file Word uses for all new documents.

After you do, a new toolbar will appear, floating on the screen.  Once it's there, you can simply drag 'n' drop those additional commands the way you did in steps 4 & 5, above.

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