Commands which could not fit in Ribbon
This is a very common problem. You move from older version of Office to 2007 version. And you cannot find some familiar menu or toolbar button.
Many users think that Microsoft has removed that particular feature in the new version. In most cases this is not the case. The feature is very much there. But it could not fit into Ribbon. Therefore, you cannot find it in the ribbon.
Where do you find it then? In the CUSTOMIZE dialog.
Right click on the Ribbon or QAT to customize it.
Now you get two lists. Left side list shows available features, and right side list shows items already in the QAT. But wait. The list on the left side is filtered by default. It shows only Popular Commands.
We want ALL commands. So open the drop down and choose All Commands.
Now you can search for the command you want and then click on the Add button to add it to QAT.
You can also REMOVE unwanted commands from QAT using this dialog.
Rearranging the QAT buttons
While you are in this dialog, notice that items in QAT can be moved up and down to rearrange them.
Why would you want to do that? Two reasons:
Firstly, you can group related commands by rearranging them. There is even a group separator available in the left side list. Separator is always the first item in the left side list. Here is how a grouped QAT looks like.
Secondly, you may want to rearrange commands so that you get convenient keyboard shortcuts for them.
Using Keyboard shortcuts Alt 1 to 9 for QAT
Office 2007 shows you keyboard shortcut keys on top of Ribbon and QAT commands. Just press and release the ALT key on your keyboard. Now watch how each item gets a letter or number.
QAT items always get numbers. First nine entries on QAT always get numbers 1 to 9.
So you have 9 predictable shortcuts – reserve them for the 9 most important and common actions you perform in the product. When we add items to QAT, we do not always add them in priority order. That is when the rearrange feature of QAT comes in handy.
One additional thought. If you use some features commonly across Office products, then arrange them to have SAME shortcut keys across products. This way, you will work even more efficiently.
What more can you add to QAT?
QAT is turning out to be a very long topic. But it is also a very useful feature. So let me complete all the possible scenarios. You never know which one will be relevant to your specific needs.
Open the Customization dialog and open the “Choose Commands From” dropdown.
That will give you an idea of all the items you can add to QAT. Do not miss the MACROS option. This is how your custom macros can be accessed in a single click. If you add a macro to QAT, the “Modify” button gets enabled. Use this button to change the icon of your macros so that you can easily identify them.
Unlike earlier version, you can no longer edit the icons. But it is not really a problem. The collection of symbols offered is sufficiently large.
In addition, you can add any items from the Office File menu to the QAT.
Some good candidates here are the print preview, quick print, save as PDF, Document Inspector, Mark as Final…
Finally, here is one great thing which often goes completely unnoticed…
The QAT can be specific to a document!
Customizing QAT for a document
Yes. This is possible. You can have a special set of QAT buttons which can be bundled with your document.
How do you do that? Well it is simpler than you thought!
Open your document. Go to Customize dialog. Notice the dropdown on top of the QAT items list called “Customize Quick Access Toolbar”. By default it shows For All Documents. Now open the drop down and choose your document. The QAT list will become empty. Now add items to QAT as usual.
That’s it.
When you finish customization, click Ok.
Notice that the global QAT items still remain, but the document specific items are added to it.
If you switch to another document, the document specific buttons go away automatically.
How do you know which items are document specific? They will have a small border around them.
Which items to make document specific?
Well it depends upon what kind of document you are making and what is special about using it.
But here are some suggestions:
If you are sending a document to someone for reviewing, provide New Comment, Next comment, Previous comment buttons along with it.
If your document contains multiple charts and pivot tables, add chart / pivot related commands to it.
Well that is how you use QAT. And this is only the beginning. When you use it actively, I am sure you will find more innovative ways for yourself.
Older Custom Toolbars workaround
This is a rare but important use of QAT. Suppose you had created custom toolbars using older versions of Office. When you migrate to Office 2007, the custom toolbar buttons are NOT added to QAT. Instead they become groups in Add-ins tab. This is cumbersome for most users because they have to click twice to access a custom toolbar button. The workaround is simple. Right click on individual items of your custom toolbar, which is now in Add-Ins tab and add it to QAT. That’s it.
Notes for IT Pros
QAT can be customized by per application, per user profile, per document basis.
The application specific QAT configuration is stored in
userprofiledirectory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Office
The file extension is .QAT
Outlook keeps multiple QAT files. One each for mail editing UI, Calendar editing, task editing and so on.
Document specific QATs are of course inside the document package in the userCustomization directory.
Remember. QATs are part of Local Settings. Therefore you will NOT get them while roaming.
Base QATs can of course be controlled using Group Policy. Which means a particular set of users (or all users) can be helped by providing a pre-customized QAT to make their life easier.