Hi, I'm Dawn.
Let's look at how to save time by customizing the Quick Access Toolbar in
Microsoft Excel. In earlier versions of Excel, such as Excel 2016,
the Quick Access Toolbar, sometimes referred to as the QAT,
was displayed in the Excel title bar with a few options, Save, Undo,
and Redo. But now, in the Microsoft 365 environment,
the Quick Access Toolbar is hidden unless you've already added options to it.
So to get started, let's first unhide the Quick Access Toolbar.
I'll simply move anywhere on the Excel ribbon and right-click.
And here is Show Quick Access Toolbar. Next,
let's look at three different ways to customize the Excel Quick Access Toolbar.
Number one, the dropdown menu.
You might notice here that we really don't have much going on with this Quick
Access Toolbar. There's a separator and a dropdown arrow, so I'll select this,
and from here,
we can pick from some of these common actions like New or
Open. So now I've added some common actions to my Quick Access Toolbar.
In the process, the Excel title bar is getting quite crowded.
It's good to know that the Quick Access Toolbar can display above or below
the ribbon. So let's change that.
To move the location of the Quick Access Toolbar,
simply hover over the Quick Access Toolbar or the ribbon, right-click.
And here is the option Show Quick Access Toolbar Below the ribbon.
This is what I recommend for displaying the Quick Access Toolbar because it's
easier to see the icons. We don't have to go across the ribbon to get to them,
and it has this dedicated space,
so we can also continue adding other options to the Quick Access Toolbar.
Let's look at our second way to customize the Quick Access Toolbar,
and that is to add commands directly from the Excel ribbon.
So as you work with Excel,
consider which actions you're using frequently. Maybe it's a formatting tool,
for instance, to apply the accounting number format. To add this,
I'll simply right-click, left-click, Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
Another one that you might use frequently in Excel is Wrap Text.
So hover over the tool, right-click,
left-click Add to Quick Access Toolbar.
And our oh so popular function, AutoSum. Now this one's a little subtle.
Now if you just want the Sum button, you can just move to that and right-click.
But if you might also on occasion use the other
functions that are in this dropdown, like Average or Count,
then that's where you want to put your mouse. So either directly on the Sum,
if that's all you want, or if you want access to the dropdown,
move here and right-click. And once again,
Add to the Quick Access Toolbar. Now here's one of my favorites.
It's under the View tab. Lots of times when we're working in Excel,
we have more than one workbook open.
Now we can easily switch using our task bar or even a keyboard
shortcut. But for this one, I'll move to Switch Windows and I can right-click,
left-click Add Quick Access Toolbar.
I like keeping this on the far right-hand side of my Quick Access Toolbar as an
easy way to be able to switch between open workbooks.
It's likely there are a lot of other handy options you want to add to your Quick
Access Toolbar.
But notice how the Quick Access Toolbar is starting to fill the horizontal space
here below the ribbon.
And it's helpful to know that it is limited to just one line.
So if we add too much now,
we're really defeating the whole purpose of it because then we have to go to
another dropdown to find those tools. So although they can be handy,
the command labels are taking up a lot of room with the Quick Access Toolbar.
If you wish to turn those off,
simply right-click anywhere on the Quick Access Toolbar.
And here is the option Hide Command Labels.
Now notice how these options are categorized here.
I could also Hide the Quick Access Toolbar,
remove an option from the Quick Access Toolbar or even move
in to customize the Quick Access Toolbar, and I'll show that to you as well.
But for right now, we'll simply hide the command labels.
And now we have a more compact Quick Access Toolbar,
which gives you the flexibility of adding more options as you wish.
It's good to know as well that you can use these same steps to customize the
Quick Access Toolbar in other Microsoft 365 applications like Word,
Outlook, and PowerPoint.
And as you start adding actions to the Quick Access Toolbar,
they may not be in the order that you want,
or there could be commands that you don't find on the ribbon.
So let's look at the third way to customize our Quick Access Toolbar.
Number three, customize with File Options. Now,
there are a number of ways to get to the same place. That is,
we could go to File > Options.
We can go to the dropdown on the far right-hand side here and choose More
Commands.
Or you could right-click on the Quick Access Toolbar and pick
Customize Quick Access Toolbar. However you get there,
you'll land in the same place. And that is on the right-hand side,
we have our Quick Access Toolbar,
and this is a handy place for you to be able to add options and
rearrange what you currently have. For instance,
if I wanted to move my formatting actions in a little bit different
place,
I could simply select them and use the up or down arrow keys,
but there might be other actions we'd like to add. On the left-hand side,
we see Popular Commands,
and this is a good place to start when there are other actions that aren't on
the ribbon or you simply want to quickly customize your Quick Access Toolbar.
So I'll scroll down here.
A common action we have in Excel is Save As. To add this,
simply select it and choose Add or double-click. Now I'll move this up.
If I was already positioned here,
it would've been even just a little bit easier. So that's a little tip as well.
But there might be other actions that you don't see here.
So let's look at the dropdown from here. Notice Commands Not in the Ribbon,
All Commands, and even the particular ribbon tabs.
I'll move to All Commands. What I'd like to find here is Close.
So I can click into the list, type the letter C for Close,
and it gets me there a little faster. You can see there are a lot of choices.
Many of them are actions that you're probably not currently using or would use
so rarely that it wouldn't make sense to add this button.
And see lots of choices. So here I have Close File.
I'm going to double-click and maybe move that right below my Print.
Or Close All.
Now this is really handy as well because we often have more than one workbook
open in Excel, so I'll double-click. So even though they have the same icon,
I found that once I get used to these actions,
it becomes easier to know which one to pick,
and you will get a little screen tip as well. Now,
Close All will still prompt you for saving,
so that's not something to be concerned about. Once again,
you can explore and look for those actions that you use frequently
in Excel. If you really want to get organized,
you can even add a separator. So for instance,
if I want to separate my file management tools from the others,
I can simply move to my separator, double-click. I'll move that down,
and I could rearrange some of my other actions as well.
Notice from this dialog box,
we also have the options to change the toolbar position,
and we could also show command labels from here. One last piece here.
If any time you get a little carried away and you want to start from scratch,
you can choose Reset,
and you even have the option to import or export.
So if you've created a Quick Access Toolbar that you really like in an
application,
you could export it if you wanted to transfer it to another computer.
So that would be another option for now. We'll simply, OK.
So notice here I have my Save As as well as my various
close options and even my little separator.
And that's our look at how you can save time and effort by customizing your
Quick Access Toolbar in Microsoft Excel.
For more tips on being productive with Microsoft Excel or to sign up for my tips
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