Add Commands to the Quick Access Toolbar in Microsoft® Office

This article describes how to add commands to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). The instructions apply generally to Office 2007 and later versions, but Microsoft® Word 2013 was used for the specific steps and figures.
 

What Is the Quick Access Toolbar?

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is a feature that was introduced in Office 2007. It gives you immediate access to commands that you want to be always available or to commands that are not in the Ribbon interface. The QAT can be positioned either above or below the Ribbon and is limited to a single line containing your chosen command icons.

Figure 1 shows the QAT (outlined in red) above the Ribbon. In this example, there are many commands in the QAT. This results in the document title being moved from its default position at the center of the title bar. Because the QAT shares the existing title bar, the height of the command area remains the same.
 
 

Figure 2 shows the QAT (outlined in red) below the Ribbon. Since there are no other objects in the QAT toolbar area, you can have many more command icons. As you can see in Figure 2, the QAT toolbar increases the height of the command area.




Personally, I prefer the QAT positioned below the Ribbon for the following reasons:

• My QAT has a lot of command icons and I prefer the document title to remain in a consistent position.
   
• The QAT is closer to the document itself, which reduces the amount of space my cursor has to traverse on the screen.
   
• If I want to reduce the height of the command area, I can collapse the Ribbon.

 

How Do You Add Commands to the QAT?

To add commands to the QAT, follow these steps:

1.  Click the dropdown menu arrow at the leftmost edge of the QAT (outlined in red), and select the More Commands… option (outlined in red). See Figure 3. 



The Customize the Quick Access Toolbar window opens as shown in Figure 4.


2.  You can select from the following menu options on the Choose commands from dropdown menu:

• Popular Commands
• Commands Not in the Ribbon
• All Commands
• Macros

The scrolling list on the left displays the commands you can choose. Steps 3 through 7 are shown in Figure 5 below.

3.  In the scrolling list on the left, select the command you want to add to the QAT (example outlined in red).

4.  In the Customize Quick Access Toolbar dropdown menu (outlined in red), you can choose to apply the command to the QAT for all documents (the default option), or to add the command only to the QAT for the current document. 

5.  Click the Add>> button (outlined in red). The command you selected will move to the scrolling list on the right.

6.  Continue adding commands until you’re done.

7.  Click the OK button (outlined in red) to close the window.

Changing the Order of Commands on the QAT

Newly-added commands are appended to the bottom of the scrolling list on the right. On the QAT itself, these commands will be added at the end of the toolbar. You can control the order in which the commands appear on the QAT by moving them up or down in the scrolling list.

1.  Select the command that you want to move (outlined in red).

2.  Use the Up or Down arrow (outlined in red) to position the command where you want it.

3.  Click the OK button (outlined in red) to close the window.
 


Having immediate access to frequently-used commands on the QAT can increase the efficiency of your workflow and give you more control of your Office environment.