Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

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About this lesson

Learn how to work with the ribbons in Access and add frequently used commands to the Quick Access Toolbar.

Quick reference

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

We can ensure that commands we use frequently are easily accessible by adding them to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). Any command, even commands not visible on the ribbons can be added to the QAT. 

When to use

It is recommended that you add frequently used commands to the Quick Access toolbar to make them easier and quicker to access, improving efficiency. 

Instructions

The Quick Access Toolbar is located in the top left-hand corner. By default, it will be located above the ribbon and will contain the default commands, Save, Undo, and Redo.

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar Using the Menu

  • Click the drop-down arrow to show the Customize Quick Access Toolbar menu. 

The commands with ticks next to them are the ones that are currently on the Quick Access Toolbar. 

  • Click New and Spelling to add these commands to the QAT. 

Changing the location of the Quick Access Toolbar

  • Click the drop-down arrow and select Show Below the Ribbon from the menu. 

Adding Other Commands

We can add other commands not in the list in two ways. 

From the Ribbon
  • From the Create tab, right-click on the Table command. 
  • Select Add to Quick Access Toolbar. 
  • Repeat this process to add any command from any ribbon to the Quick Access Toolbar. 
From Access Options

Not all commands in Access are displayed on the ribbons. To see the full list and add any of them to the Quick Access Toolbar, we need to customize the QAT in Access Options. 

  • Click the File tab and select Options. 
  • From Access Options, select Quick Access Toolbar. 

On the right-hand side, we can see the commands currently on the Quick Access Toolbar. On the left-hand side, we can see all commands available in Access. The commands are grouped and listed in alphabetical order. 

  • From the Choose commands from drop-down menu, select Popular Commands. 
  • Scroll through the list and find the Align Left command. 
  • Click on the command and click the Add button in the middle. 
  • Repeat this process to add the Align Right command.  
  • Use the arrow keys on the right-hand side to re-organize the commands. 

We can add some structure to the Quick Access Toolbar by including separators. Separators separate commands and effectively help you group together commands of a similar type. 

  • Scroll to the top of the list of commands. 
  • Click on Separator. 
  • Click the Add button in the middle. 
  • Use the arrow keys to move the separator into the required position. 
  • Repeat this process to add more separators. 

Removing Commands from the Quick Access Toolbar

  • From the Quick Access Toolbar, right-click on the command and select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar. 
  • OR, from the File tab, click Options and Quick Access Toolbar. 
  • Select the command on the right-hand side and click the Remove button in the middle.
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  • 00:03 The final thing I want to talk to you about in this introductory section
  • 00:07 is the Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 00:09 And we briefly mentioned the Quick Access Toolbar when we were exploring
  • 00:13 the interface.
  • 00:14 It's this little toolbar underneath the ribbons,
  • 00:18 which currently houses just three icons.
  • 00:21 And this is what your Quick Access Toolbar is going to look like the first time that
  • 00:25 you open Access.
  • 00:26 And what this basically allows us to do is add any command available in Access
  • 00:32 to the QAT to make it supper easy for us to find commands that we use frequently.
  • 00:38 So by default, what you get on your Quick Access Toolbar is the Save button,
  • 00:44 Undo, and Redo, things that we use all the time.
  • 00:47 Now we can add any command available in access to the QAT.
  • 00:51 Notice that we have a little drop-down arrow, if we click it,
  • 00:55 this allows us to customize this Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 00:58 Now the first thing to determine with the QAT is where you prefer it to be located,
  • 01:04 so I like to have mine underneath my ribbons, but
  • 01:07 it might be that you prefer it tucked away in the top left-hand corner.
  • 01:12 If that's the case, the last option that we have here is to show above the ribbon
  • 01:17 which is going to move your QAT out of the way and up here.
  • 01:20 Now I actually prefer mine to be below the ribbon,
  • 01:23 I just find it a little bit easier to see the icons and access them.
  • 01:27 Now if we go back to that drop-down,
  • 01:29 notice that some of the items in this list have a tick next to them.
  • 01:33 And these are the commands that are currently on the QAT, so Save, Undo,
  • 01:38 and Redo, but I could choose to add any of these other commands to my QAT.
  • 01:43 for example, if I'm always creating new blank databases,
  • 01:48 maybe I want to add the New button,
  • 01:51 maybe I decide that I want to add Print View or maybe even Spelling.
  • 01:56 So very simple just to toggle those off or on.
  • 01:59 Now notice here, we only have a selection of roughly 10 to 12 different commands,
  • 02:04 but we have hundreds of commands in Access.
  • 02:07 So how can we customize this with commands that aren't in this list?
  • 02:12 While there are a few different methods we can use,
  • 02:15 by far the easiest is to find the command that you want to add on the ribbons.
  • 02:19 For example, if I go to Create, maybe I am always creating forms,
  • 02:24 all I need to do to add form to the QAT is right click and
  • 02:28 select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 02:31 Nice and straightforward.
  • 02:33 Let's right-click and add Reports as well.
  • 02:36 And if you decide at any point that you no longer want a command on the QAT, you can
  • 02:41 simply right-click and choose Remove from Quick Access Toolbar from the menu.
  • 02:45 And just a quick note about these right-click menus.
  • 02:49 These are what we call contextual menus and
  • 02:51 they are contextual to whatever it is that you're clicked on.
  • 02:55 So these right-click menus will change depending on what you currently
  • 02:59 have selected.
  • 03:00 So because I'm right-clicking on a command in the QAT,
  • 03:04 I'm getting options in this right-click menu related to that Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 03:10 Let's remove this command.
  • 03:12 Now not every single command available in Access is on a ribbon, there are many
  • 03:17 commands that just exist but are not actually accessible through ribbons.
  • 03:22 There are also things in Access called contextual ribbons which don't
  • 03:26 appear until they're needed.
  • 03:28 So how can we access commands that appear on contextual ribbons that we
  • 03:32 can't see at the moment or a command that just simply exists in Access but
  • 03:37 doesn't belong to any ribbon?
  • 03:39 How can we access those and add them to our QAT?
  • 03:42 All we can do is click the drop-down and go down to More Commands.
  • 03:47 And this is actually going to jump us into Access options and
  • 03:50 straight down to the Quick Access Toolbar section.
  • 03:53 On the right-hand side,
  • 03:55 we can see everything that we currently have added to our QAT.
  • 04:00 And then on the left-hand side,
  • 04:02 this is where we can look through a list of all of the commands.
  • 04:06 And the commands in this list are organized into different categories.
  • 04:10 So currently, I'm just seeing in this list the popular commands.
  • 04:14 But if I wanted to see absolutely everything available in Access,
  • 04:18 I could choose All Commands and I'm going to get a list that's organized
  • 04:23 alphabetically to make it easier for me to find what I'm looking for.
  • 04:27 I can then scroll through this list and maybe I want the Alignment button,
  • 04:33 I can select it, and click Add in the middle to put it across to the QAT.
  • 04:39 Let's do Align Right and also Align Top.
  • 04:44 Once I have these items in my QAT,
  • 04:47 I can then use my arrows on the right-hand side to reorder things.
  • 04:52 So maybe I want to move Form up,
  • 04:54 I can change its position simply by using these buttons.
  • 04:58 Now another thing that you can add just to give a little
  • 05:01 bit of structure to the QAT is something called separators.
  • 05:05 And at the top of every list that you choose, so
  • 05:08 it doesn't matter if its popular commands, or all commands, or something else,
  • 05:12 you're going to see Separator.
  • 05:14 So I'm going to add a couple of separators to my QAT, and
  • 05:18 then I'm going to use my arrow keys to move these into position.
  • 05:21 And these just really allow you to give a bit of separation between different groups
  • 05:26 of commands.
  • 05:27 So I want my alignment tool separated from everything else, so
  • 05:31 I'm going to move that separator down, and I'm going to move this separator up one.
  • 05:36 Let's click on OK.
  • 05:38 Now it says here that I must close and reopen the database for
  • 05:42 my Quick Access Toolbar to update.
  • 05:44 Now in my experience, I don't necessarily need to do that because as soon as I click
  • 05:48 on OK, there we go, the changes are showing.
  • 05:51 Notice the separators just here,
  • 05:53 very faint little lines just to give a little bit of structure.
  • 05:57 So those are all of the methods you can use to really customize this QAT.
  • 06:02 It's a great efficiency tool, and means you don't have to spend time hunting
  • 06:06 around through different ribbons looking for commands that you use all the time.

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