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About this lesson

We introduce the Quick Access Toolbar which allows users to execute frequently used commands with one-click. We also learn how to add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar using two different methods.

Exercise files

Download the ‘before’ and ‘after’ PowerPoint presentations from the video tutorial and try the lesson yourself.

3.03 customizing-the-qat - Exercise.docx
51 KB 3.03 customize-the-quick-access-toolbar - Exercise solution.docx
89.2 KB 03-03-Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar.pptx
2.6 MB

Quick reference

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is a customizable toolbar that contains a set of commands independent from the ribbon. The Quick Access Toolbar can be positioned above or below the ribbon and any command can be added for quick and easy access. 

When to use

The Quick Access Toolbar can be used whenever we are working in PowerPoint. It helps improve our efficiency when executing commands we use frequently. 

Instructions

Overview of the Quick Access Toolbar

The Quick Access Toolbar or QAT is located in the top left-hand corner of the PowerPoint window. By default, it contains several useful commands: Save, Undo, Repeat and Touch/Mouse Mode. 

Change the Position of the Quick Access Toolbar

The QAT can be displayed above or below the ribbon. To change the position of the QAT:

  1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT. 
  2. From the Customize Quick Access Toolbar menu, select Show Below the ribbon. 

Add Commands from the Menu

We can add any command available in PowerPoint to the QAT.

Microsoft provides a list of the most popular commands in the Customize Quick Access Toolbar menu. Commands with a tick next to them are displayed on the QAT. 

  1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT. 
  2. Select a command to add it to the QAT. 

Add Commands from the Ribbon

Aside from the limited selection of commands available in the drop-down menu, we can add commands from any of the ribbon tabs to the QAT. 

  1. Right-click on a command on any of the tabs. 
  2. Select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

Add Commands from Options

Not all commands available in PowerPoint are visible on the ribbon. To access all commands in PowerPoint including those not shown on the ribbon, we need to customize the QAT from PowerPoint Options. 

  1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT. 
  2. Select More Commands.
  3. From the Quick Access Toolbar page of PowerPoint Options, make a selection from the Choose commands from drop-down menu. 
  4. Scroll down the list and find the command to add to the QAT. Commands are organised in alphabetical order. 
  5. Click the Add button. 
  6. Repeat this process to add more commands. 

Organising Commands with Separators

QAT commands can be organised and grouped by similar type using Separators. 

  1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT. 
  2. Select More Commands.
  3. From the Quick Access Toolbar page of PowerPoint Options, select anything from the Choose commands from drop-down menu. 
  4. At the top of the list, select Separator. 
  5. Click the Add button. 
  6. Repeat this process to add more separators. 
  7. Use the Move up and Move down arrows to organise commands and seperators. 

Removing Commands from the QAT

  1. Right-click on the command on the QAT. 
  2. Select Remove from Quick Access Toolbar.

Alternatively,

  1. Click the drop-down arrow at the end of the QAT. 
  2. Select More Commands.
  3. Choose the command to remove from Customize Quick Access Toolbar pane on the right-hand side.  
  4. Click the Remove button.

Hints & tips

  • The Quick Access Toolbar can also be customised by clicking the File tab, selecting Options and then the Quick Access Toolbar page. 
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  • 00:04 One of the things you want to strive for
  • 00:06 when you're working in PowerPoint is to work smarter and not harder.
  • 00:10 And there are many different ways that you can increase your efficiency when you're
  • 00:14 working in PowerPoint.
  • 00:16 And one of them is by customizing the Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 00:21 Now I mentioned briefly in the previous lesson what the Quick Access Toolbar is,
  • 00:25 but let's delve into it a little bit deeper.
  • 00:28 So you'll find your Quick Access Toolbar up here on the title bar.
  • 00:32 And it's this little group of icons just here.
  • 00:35 So where I have AutoSave, I then have the Save icon.
  • 00:40 I have the undo and the redo buttons and
  • 00:42 then I have a button that allows me to toggle between mouse and
  • 00:46 touch mode depending on the type of device that I'm using.
  • 00:50 Now by default, you'll see these icons on your Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 00:55 And this little toolbar is really just a quick way of being able to access
  • 00:59 your commands.
  • 01:01 So instead of hunting around through the different ribbons trying to find
  • 01:04 the command that I'm looking for,
  • 01:06 I can simply click on it on the Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 01:09 Now another way that you might hear the Quick Access Toolbar referred to is
  • 01:13 simply QAT.
  • 01:15 And that's what I'm going to refer to it as throughout this course.
  • 01:18 Now the first thing you might want to consider doing with the QAT is moving
  • 01:22 the position.
  • 01:23 Because by default, it's kind of shoved up in the corner of your screen and
  • 01:27 it's very easy to forget that it's actually there.
  • 01:31 Now you might be perfectly fine with it being in that location, but
  • 01:34 I know that for me personally, I like to have it a little bit more visible and
  • 01:38 display it below my ribbon.
  • 01:40 So what I'm going to do here is click the arrow on the end of my QAT, and
  • 01:45 right at the bottom I have the option to show it below the ribbon.
  • 01:50 And you can see that that now moves it so it's a little bit more accessible.
  • 01:54 Now you can pretty much add any command available in PowerPoint even commands
  • 01:58 that you can't see on the ribbons to your Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 02:02 And I would say that this is probably something that you want to customize once
  • 02:05 you've been using PowerPoint for a while.
  • 02:08 Because until you've kind of got a feel of the application,
  • 02:11 you're not really going to understand which commands you use most frequently and
  • 02:15 which ones are going to be useful for you to add to the QAT.
  • 02:18 So let's take a look at how we can customize this little toolbar and
  • 02:21 how we can add at commands.
  • 02:23 So once again, I'm going to click on this little drop down arrow.
  • 02:26 You'll see as I hover over, it says Customize Quick Access Toolbar, and
  • 02:29 it's going to produce a list of ten or so commands.
  • 02:32 And these are commands that Microsoft have deemed the most useful or
  • 02:36 popular commands.
  • 02:37 And you can see that the ones that have ticks next to them are the ones that I
  • 02:41 currently have displayed on my QAT.
  • 02:44 If I find I'm always opening or creating new presentations,
  • 02:48 I might decide I want to add the new commands
  • 02:51 to the QAT by simply selecting it and you can see now it's been added.
  • 02:56 Now, aside from these ten or so commands,
  • 02:59 you can add anything that you see on the ribbon to the QAT.
  • 03:03 So for example, I tend to do a lot of formatting in my slides and
  • 03:07 it might be that I'm always reaching for the Bold tool.
  • 03:11 So what I can do is find the Bold command,
  • 03:13 which is here in the font group on the Home tab.
  • 03:17 I can right click, and one of the options I'm going to have in my right click menu
  • 03:21 is Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 03:24 And I can pretty much do that on any of these commands.
  • 03:28 So it's kind of similar in a way to building yourself your own customized
  • 03:32 ribbon, except it's on a toolbar.
  • 03:35 Now you can add commands from any of the ribbons, you're not just limited to one.
  • 03:39 Every time you right click, you'll have that Add to Quick Access Toolbar option.
  • 03:44 Now, aside from this method of adding commands, there is another way of doing
  • 03:48 this, because not all commands in PowerPoint are located on a ribbon.
  • 03:52 Believe it or not, there are many commands kind of sitting in the background that you
  • 03:57 really have to hunt for through different menus and dialog boxes.
  • 04:01 So you could also consider adding those to your Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 04:06 So if I want to see the full list of commands,
  • 04:09 if I go all the way down to More Commands, it's going to jump me into
  • 04:13 my PowerPoint options, and to the Quick Access Toolbar page.
  • 04:19 And what you'll see on the right-hand side are all of the commands that I currently
  • 04:24 have on my QAT.
  • 04:25 And on the left hand side, I can choose additional commands to add into my QAT.
  • 04:30 Now currently,
  • 04:31 you'll see that I'm choosing commands from the popular commands list.
  • 04:36 And all of these commands are listed in alphabetical order,
  • 04:39 so it makes them a little bit easier to find.
  • 04:42 If click the drop down up here,
  • 04:43 you'll see that I have other categories that I can search through.
  • 04:47 So for example,
  • 04:48 if I want to see the commands that are not actually in the ribbon,
  • 04:52 I can select this group and it's going to show me all of those commands.
  • 04:56 So for example, if I scroll down,
  • 04:58 maybe I decide that I want to add the Close Window command to my QAT.
  • 05:03 All I need to do is select it,
  • 05:05 click on the Add button in the middle to add that over to the right-hand side.
  • 05:11 And if I want to see a big list of all commands available in PowerPoint,
  • 05:15 I can just select All Commands and
  • 05:17 it's going to show me everything listed in alphabetical order.
  • 05:21 So go through, add the commands that you use frequently.
  • 05:25 And finally just to finish up, once you have your commands over on your QAT,
  • 05:30 you can reorder them using these arrows on the right-hand side.
  • 05:34 So if I decide I want to move Close Window like make sure that I've got it selected,
  • 05:39 click the up arrow, and I can move that into a different position.
  • 05:43 And one final thing you might want to consider doing is adding separators so
  • 05:47 that you can visually group different commands together.
  • 05:51 And at the top of every one of these lists, you'll see you have separator.
  • 05:55 So if I click on Add, and I'm going to add a couple of these separators,
  • 05:59 it's going to add them to my QAT and
  • 06:01 I can then arrange them in order to group my commands together.
  • 06:05 So maybe I want to move this separator up and have Save, Undo, Redo together.
  • 06:12 And maybe I want to move this separator down to separate off some of
  • 06:16 the formatting and arranging icons.
  • 06:19 Once I'm done, I just need to click on OK, and
  • 06:21 you'll see that my QAT updates to reflect the changes that I've made.
  • 06:26 So you can now see there is my Close button that I added.
  • 06:29 And if you look very closely, you can see those little gray separation lines,
  • 06:33 just adding a bit of visual separation to group my commands together.
  • 06:37 And of course, if you want to remove something from the Quick Access Toolbar,
  • 06:42 all you need to do is right click on the icon and
  • 06:44 the first option you have in the menu is remove from Quick Access Toolbar.
  • 06:49 It's as simple as that.
  • 06:51 So this is something I highly recommend you do in order to increase your
  • 06:56 efficiency when working in PowerPoint.

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