The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) was Microsoft’s attempt to appease users of Office 2003 for the replacement of the menus/toolbars with the Ribbon that debuted in Office 2007. The QAT allowed users to add their favorite command shortcuts to one location rather than having to search the ribbon for commands that were no longer in the expected location. The QAT is the series of icons that are (by default) displayed above the tabs of the Office ribbon. The default QAT for Word 2010 is shown below.

To add the commands that you need to the QAT, click the drop-down arrow at the right end of the QAT and select More Commands from the menu. NOTE: Although our example is using Word, the procedure is the same for all Office applications that have the QAT.

This will open the Word Options dialog box as seen in the next image. NOTE: this post uses images from Office 2010. The dialog boxes look slightly different in Office 2007.

The left drop-down allows you to narrow the area from which you wish to choose a command. Use All Commands for a comprehensive list.

The right drop-down allows you to customize the QAT for all documents, or just the current one. This could be very useful if a document that you use on a regular basis requires special commands.

The basic procedure is to select a command from the left pane and move it to the right using the Add >> button. Do not to forget to add the Separator to add vertical bars to the QAT. Use the << Remove button to remove commands from the QAT. The up/down arrows along the right side of the dialog box can be used to arrange the icons left-to-right.

The QAT will be look like the following after clicking the OK button on the previous dialog box.

You can go through the procedure again to make any additional modifications. You can also erase all of your customizations and start from scratch if you click the Reset button on the options dialog box.

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