Stop Hunting for Your Favorite Commands
Finding the right command on the Ribbon of any Microsoft Office application can be a challenge — and even then not every available command is on there. But if there’s a command you use frequently, you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar for one-click access and even add your own customized tab to the Ribbon.
Quick Access Toolbar in Word
Every Microsoft Office application has a Quick Access Toolbar tucked away in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. By default, it doesn’t have very many commands on it, but you can add your most-used commands to it easily.
Several additional commands are available via the drop-down at the right-hand edge of the Quick Access Toolbar. Adding one of those just requires clicking on it to put a checkmark next to it.
For even more commands, and to customize the order of those buttons, click More Commands near the bottom of the drop-down. This will take you into the Options dialog box. From there, you can select any command. By default, “Popular Commands” will be shown, but you can list every command available by choosing All Commands. This will list everything in alphabetical order.
Let’s say I want to add Publish as PDF to my Quick Access Toolbar. I can scroll down to find it, select it, then click the Add button to add it to my Quick Access Toolbar. I can reorder the buttons by using these up and down buttons on the right.
Once I’ve added new commands to the Quick Access Toolbar, I can click OK to finish.
Now anytime I want to publish a document as a PDF, all I have to do is click this one button, as opposed to going to the File tab and clicking multiple times to do Save As or Export.
Customize the Ribbon
Another way to get all your most frequently used commands in easy reach is to add your own tab to the Ribbon. You’ll use pretty much the same process here, but you’ll start by going to File > Options > Customize Ribbon. Over on the lower right, click on New Tab, then Rename to give it a name other than “New Tab.” You can even organize them in Command Groups using the New Group button and rename those as well.
From here, it’s just like adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar: Find the command you want on the left, select it and click Add, then use the up and down buttons on the right to reorder them.
Click here to read more of Deborah’s Microsoft Office tips.
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