Adding commands to the Quick Access Toolbar

Word 365 2013 2010 2007
Suppose you'd like to add a couple more commands to the Quick Access toolbar. Also, say you're a big fan of AutoText, which lets you assign long strings of text to a couple keystrokes. You can add the AutoText button to the Quick Access Toolbar, so you can quickly create and use AutoText to collect frequently used commands.

To add a command to the Quick Access toolbar, follow this steps:

   1.   To the right of the Quick Access toolbar, click the tiny arrow button to open the drop-down menu:

By checking the commands on this menu, you can add their icons to the Quick Access toolbar. The trouble is, the commands shows that the two commands you want to add isn't even on the menu, so:

Quick Access Word 2016

   2.   Near the bottom of the menu, click More Commands....

The Word Options dialog box opens, showing the Quick Access Toolbar options. The list box on the right shows the commands that are currently shown on the Quick Access toolbar. The box on the left contains commands that you can add to the Quick Access toolbar.

Word 2016 Options

The Choose commands from drop-down menu above the left box shows Popular Commands. Evidently, the Switch Windows and AutoText commands aren't popular enough to make the cut, because they aren't on the list. Fortunately, you can use the Choose commands from menu to display more commands.

   3.   From the Choose commands from drop-down menu, choose All Commands.

Choose commands from in Word 2016

The All Commands list is pretty lengthy, giving you an idea of just how many different commands Word has to offer. That's why the Choose commands from menu also lets you narrow down your choices by choosing commands from specific ribbon tabs (The major tabs are listed closer to the top, and the submenu tabs, like those for chart tools and table tools, are listed near the bottom).

   4.   Scroll down the All Commands list to select AutoText, and then click the Add button between the two list boxes to add the command to the box with the Quick Access toolbar commands.

Add command to Quick Access toolbar in Word 2016

You can use the Add button to add a command to the Quick Access toolbar list, or you can just double-click a command.

   5.   Scroll down to select Switch Windows, and then double-click to add the command to the Quick Access toolbar box.

Press S to jump down to the commands that begin with S. That makes it a shorter scroll to get to the Switch Windows command. Now that you've filled the list with your desired commands, it's time to arrange them to your liking.

   6.   In the Customize Quick Access toolbar list box, select a command, and then use the up and down arrow buttons on the right to arrange them in an order that works best for you.

To make it easier to find a new commands, you can add one or two separators described in the previous tip. For example, you may want to group the related Save, Undo, and Redo commands together:

Separator in Quick Access toolbar Word 2016

   7.   Click OK to close the Word Options box and admire your newly configured Quick Access toolbar.

Quick Access Toolbar Word 2016

For even greater time savings, you can use keyboard shortcuts to run the commands on the Quick Access toolbar. The commands are numbered from left to right, so, you can choose them with the Alt key and the number:

Shortcut keys Quick Access Toolbar Word 2016

Note: You can add a command to the Quick Access toolbar from the ribbon by right-clicking the button and choosing Add to Quick Access Toolbar:

popup menu in Word 2016

See also this tip in French: Comment ajouter des commandes à la barre d'outils Accès rapide dans Word.

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