The Quick Access Toolbar, or QAT is the only toolbar available for customization in PowerPoint. Within the QAT, you can place your most used commands so that they are accessible to you with just a single click. We already explored how you can change
the location of the QAT and other tricks in our Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2010 tutorial. In
this tutorial, we will explore how you can further customize the QAT in
PowerPoint 2010. Follow these steps to learn more:
- Choose the File menu to bring up
Backstage view. Now, select Options as
shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: Options within File menu
Alternatively, the easier way is to right-click anywhere on the QAT or the Ribbon, and choose the
Customize Quick Access Toolbar option, as shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2: Customize Quick Access Toolbar option within the right-click contextual menu
- Either way, this opens the PowerPoint Options
dialog box, as shown in Figure 3. Make sure you choose the Quick Access Toolbar option within the
sidebar. This shows the relevant options on the right side
of the PowerPoint Options dialog box (refer to Figure 3 again).
Figure 3: PowerPoint Options dialog box
The Quick Access Toolbar options are explained below, as marked in Figure 3, above:
A. Choose commands from: Here you will find list of all the commands which can be added in QAT. Click
on the drop down list to choose the category of commands that you want to work with.
B. Customize Quick Access Toolbar: Here you can see the commands already added to the QAT. All new
commands that you add to the QAT show up here.
C. Add and Remove buttons: These buttons are used to add commands from the Choose commands from
(see A above) list, or remove commands from the Customize Quick Access Toolbar (see B
above) list.
D. Arrange Commands: These arrow buttons allow you to reorder the sequence of icons visible in the QAT.
-
Add the commands you use often. Figure 4 shows the Combine Shapes, Copy, and
Cut commands added to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list.
Figure 4: Commands added
Click the OK button when you are done adding, editing, or removing the commands to get back to the PowerPoint interface.
- Figure 5 shows three new commands added to the QAT.
Figure 5: Customized QAT
Tip: Each command you add to the
QAT has its own keyboard shortcut. To view these shortcuts, just press
the
Alt key and each
QAT command will show an overlaid Tool tip with a number, as shown highlighted in
red within
Figure 6, below. If the number reads
6, then the keyboard
shortcut for that command is
Alt+6. Similarly if the number reads
09, then the keyboard shortcut for
that command is
Alt+09. You'll need to be quick with pressing your keys if you have a double digit shortcut key!
Figure 6: QAT shortcuts shown in Tool tip
Tip: If you want to relocate the QAT under the Ribbon, just right-click anywhere
over the QAT or the Ribbon, and select the Show Quick Access Toolbar below the Ribbon
option (refer to Figure 2, shown earlier on this page).
See Also:
Customize Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2016 for
Windows
Customize Quick Access Toolbar in
PowerPoint 2013 for Windows
