Toolbars

Tips, Tricks, and Answers

The following articles are available for the 'Toolbars' topic. Click the article's title (shown in bold) to see the associated article.

Adding an Equation Editor Tool
Add Equation Editor to the Word Toolbar.

Calculating Expressions
Want to figure out the result of a math expression? Try this neat trick.

Changes to Toolbars aren't Persistent
If you make changes to a toolbar in Word, you expect those changes to be available the next time you start the program. If they aren't, then you've got to track down the problem (using the information in this tip) and figure out how to fix it.

Changing Toolbar Buttons with VBA
Toolbar buttons can have a different appearance depending on their state—whether they have been clicked or not. This tip explains how you can create the two necessary versions of a toolbar button for your customizations.

Changing Toolbar Buttons with WordBasic
How to make your custom toolbar buttons change their appearance in a WordBasic macro.

Changing Toolbar Location
If you don't like where your toolbars are located, just move them around.

Creating a New Toolbar
How to create your own custom Toolbar.

Customizing a Toolbar
Word is quite flexible in how you can configure the user interface. This tip explains how you can customize a toolbar so that it contains all the commands you want it to contain.

Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar
When you customize Word 2007, what you are actually changing is a single toolbar called the Quick Access Toolbar. This tip explains what the toolbar is, where it is located, and how you can make changes to it.

Deleting a Toolbar
When your Custom Toolbar has outlived its usefulness you may need to delete it.

Displaying the Outlining Toolbar by Default
The Outlining toolbar contains tools that are helpful to use, even if you aren't working on your document's outline. This tip explains how you can ensure that the Outlining toolbar is always displayed, as well as a way to access the desired tools even without the toolbar visible.

Finding a Missing Toolbar
A few methods for finding an errant toolbar in Word.

Forcing Custom Toolbars to Stay in Position
Word 2002 and Word 2003 use dynamic toolbars that can adjust themselves based on usage patterns of the tools. This can cause some problems with toolbars that unexpectedly move themselves around the screen. There is a way to avoid this behavior, as described in this tip.

Getting Rid of Custom Toolbars
If you start Word and get a bunch of unwanted toolbars displayed on the screen, you can be scratching your head (or pulling your hair out) until you figure out how to get rid of them. Here's some ideas on what you can do to get rid of the unwanted toolbars.

Hiding the Reviewing Toolbar
Does the Reviewing toolbar keep popping up whenever you create a document? Here's a possible reason, along with what you can do about it.

How to Turn Add-in Toolbar off by Default
Add-in programs for Word often add toolbars that offer whatever features the add-in enables. Sometimes you may not want these toolbars to be displayed. Figuring out how to turn them off can be a headache, however. This tip offers some suggestions on things you can try.

Locking the Position of Custom Toolbars
Is your Custom Toolbar in a new place each time you open Word? Here are some solutions.

Modifying Quick Access Toolbar Images
Want to modify the button images used for Quick Access Toolbar images. It can be done, but it is not as easy as anyone would like. Here's some guidance on what you can do.

Quickly Removing a Toolbar Button
Need to remove a toolbar button, but don't want to go through the hassle of displaying the Configure dialog box? You can make quick work of paring down your toolbars by using just one small shortcut key.

Removing Space Before Paragraphs
Want to quickly format a paragraph to remove any extra space before it? Word includes a tool that can make this change a snap.

Resetting Toolbars to Their Default
After configuring toolbars for a while, you may want to reset them to their default condition. You can perform the reset by using the Customize dialog box, as described in this tip.

Stupid Web Toolbar
Learn how to turn off the pop-up nature of the Web toolbar.

The Case of the Disappearing Icons
Troubleshooting your custom icons on the Toolbar.

Too-Big Toolbars
Work around Words inability to have a multi-row toolbar.

Tools to View Field Codes
Fields can be used to add all sorts of dynamic data to your documents. Viewing the field codes, at times, is desirable. Here's a way to add a handy clickable tool that will both display and hide those field codes.

Unchanging Toolbars
Create a macro to return Toolbars to the default settings.

Using Large Toolbar Buttons
Having trouble seeing the icons used on the various Word toolbars? You can make the tools larger (and easier to see) by using the steps in this tip.