Customize Quick Access Toolbar for Form and Report Design

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About this lesson

Customize the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for form and report design.

Quick reference

Customize QAT for Form and Report Design

Application Terminology

QAT

QAT stands for Quick Access Toolbar

Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar is a row of icons that can be displayed above or below the ribbon and is handy for saving time.

QAT Commands for Form and Report Design

There are many icons you can choose.  Here are the basic commands that will enable faster design for forms and reports:

  • Align Left (object)
  • Align Right (object)
  • Align Top (object)
  • Align Bottom (object)
  • Make Horizontal Spacing Equal
  • Make Vertical Spacing Equal
  • Bring to Front
  • Send to Back
  • Group
  • Ungroup

Steps

Customize the QAT

  1. To customize the QAT, click the down-arrow at the end of the QAT  and choose More Commands.

     
  2. When the dialog box comes up, choose All Commands from the left to show all the choices.
  3. Click on a choice in the right list where you want commands to go under.
  4. Double-Click the Separator from the top of the list on the left several times (to save time from having to go back to the top and picking it again later).
  5. Double-click choices on the left to move them to the list on the right underneath the active choice.

Show QAT Below the Ribbon

  1. So that you have more space for icons on the QAT without running into the Access title bar, choose Show Below the Ribbon.
  2. You can set this from the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT
    or by checking the box in the lower left when you are customizing the QAT
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  • 00:05 This is lesson 20 of Access 2013
  • 00:10 Forms and Reports have controls.
  • 00:12 To line them up easier, there are icons that can added
  • 00:15 to the Quick Access Toolbar, or QAT.
  • 00:19 In this lesson, you will learn how to
  • 00:21 customize the QAT with helpful commands.
  • 00:24 Hi, this is Crystal.
  • 00:26 To customize the Quick Access Toolbar,
  • 00:29 click the drop-down arrow on the right,
  • 00:31 and choose More Commands from the shortcut menu
  • 00:35 When the dialog box pops up,
  • 00:37 you will see Popular Commands in the
  • 00:39 'Choose commands from' list.
  • 00:42 Drop the choices and change the list to show 'All commands'.
  • 00:48 The list on the left shows commands that can be added
  • 00:50 to the list on the right, which are the commands
  • 00:53 that will display in the Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 00:57 First, add several Separators to the bottom of the QAT list.
  • 01:02 When you double-click an item on the left,
  • 01:05 it is added below the selected item on the right.
  • 01:08 We do not want separators below the first command.
  • 01:12 Double-click the <Separator> just added on the right
  • 01:15 to remove it from the list.
  • 01:17 Click on the bottom choice in the QAT list
  • 01:20 so the next command will be added below it.
  • 01:24 Double-click <Separator> on the left several times.
  • 01:28 On the right, click on the first <Separator> item
  • 01:31 and scroll the left list until you see the Align commands.
  • 01:36 Double click Align Left and Align Right.
  • 01:39 Notice there are 2 icons called Align Left.
  • 01:43 I picked the wrong one.
  • 01:45 The one I chose is to align content within a control.
  • 01:49 This is the same icon Word uses
  • 01:51 to left-align text within a paragraph.
  • 01:55 The command I want is to left-align
  • 01:57 selected controls with each other.
  • 02:00 This will be corrected in a later lesson,
  • 02:02 when we design a grouped report.
  • 02:05 Click the Separator below the two commands
  • 02:07 just added on the right.
  • 02:10 On the left, double-click Align Top and Align Bottom.
  • 02:14 The alignment controls will save you lots of time
  • 02:17 when you are designing reports and
  • 02:19 forms that don't use a layout.
  • 02:22 Click on the next Separator and add
  • 02:24 Make Horizontal Spacing Equal
  • 02:27 and Make Vertical Spacing Equal.
  • 02:30 These commands distribute controls horizontally or vertically.
  • 02:35 Click on the next Separator and add
  • 02:38 Bring to Front and Send to Back.
  • 02:41 I pressed S to quickly jump to commands that start with S.
  • 02:45 These commands are for layering.
  • 02:49 Click on the next Separator and add Group and Ungroup.
  • 02:53 When controls are grouped
  • 02:55 and you move one of them, they all move.
  • 02:58 Grouped controls also all get selected
  • 03:01 when you select one of them.
  • 03:03 There are still extra Separators
  • 03:05 below the commands that got added.
  • 03:08 This is a convenience as Separator is at the top of the list,
  • 03:12 so less jumping around later on when you want to add more.
  • 03:17 The QAT is displayed at the top, on the same line
  • 03:20 as the application title bar.
  • 03:23 This is fine as long as nothing is open,
  • 03:26 but you can't use them when nothing is open.
  • 03:29 When you open an object, the QAT is truncated.
  • 03:33 When the QAT has icons that are not showing, you see
  • 03:36 double triangles pointing to the right at the end.
  • 03:40 Having to expand the QAT to use these icons
  • 03:43 partially defeats putting them there.
  • 03:46 To display the QAT on its own row,
  • 03:49 click the drop-down at the end,
  • 03:50 and choose Show Below the Ribbon.
  • 03:54 Now all the commands on the QAT are quick to use.
  • 03:58 This will make designing forms and reports more efficient.
  • 04:02 In the next lesson, we will create a complex query
  • 04:05 to choose data for a grouped report.

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