Customize Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows

The Quick Access Toolbar or QAT is the only toolbar available in PowerPoint. This toolbar can be customized so that it contains your most-used commands, accessible to you with a single click. We already explored how you can change the location of the QAT in our Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows tutorial.

There are two ways in which you can add your favorite commands to the QAT. The easier way is to right-click any button on the Ribbon tabs, and choose the Add to Quick Access Toolbar option, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 1, below.

Figure 1: Add any command to the QAT with a right-click

Alternatively, follow these steps to customize the QAT in PowerPoint 2019 for Windows by adding your frequently used commands. This process is longer, but shows you all commands available in PowerPoint, including some that are not available on Ribbon tabs:

1. Choose the File menu to bring up Backstage view, as shown in Figure 2, below. Now, select Options, as shown highlighted in green within Figure 2.
2. 
   Figure 2: Options within File menu
3. Alternatively, right-click anywhere over your QAT, and from the resultant menu, select the Customize Quick Access Toolbar option, as shown in Figure 3, below.
4. 
   Figure 3: Customize Quick Access Toolbar option
2. Either way, this opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 4, below. 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, as shown in Figure 4.
3. 
   Figure 4: PowerPoint Options dialog box
4. All options for customizing the QAT are explained below, as marked in Figure 4, above:

A. Choose commands from

5. Here you will select the commands which you want to add to the QAT. Click to open the drop-down list, as shown in Figure 5, below, and choose the category of commands that you want to work with. This will display a list of commands within that category in the section below. From this section, select the particular command which you want to add to QAT.
6. 
   Figure 5: Choose the category of commands

B. Customize Quick Access Toolbar

7. Here you will choose whether you want to customize the QAT for all documents, or only for the current presentation. As you can see in Figure 4, For all documents is the default option selected. Existing commands already added to the QAT will be displayed in the section below.

C. Add and Remove buttons

8. These buttons are used to add commands from the Choose commands from (see point A above) list or remove commands from the Customize Quick Access Toolbar (see point B above) list.

D. Reorder Commands

9. These Move Up and Move Down arrow buttons allow you to reorder the sequence of icons visible on the QAT.

E. Reset

10. Sets your QAT to its defaults, and removes all customizations made. We explain this more in our Reset, Import, and Export QAT Customizations tutorial.

F. Import/Export

11. Lets you export and import your customizations, learn more in our Reset, Import, and Export QAT Customizations tutorial.
3. Add commands you use often. For this tutorial, we added Copy, Open, and Paste commands within the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 6, below.
4. 
   Figure 6: Commands added to the QAT
4. Note that you can also change the order in which these commands show in the QAT. To reorder, select a command that you want to change the order for. Then, click either the Move Up or Move Down buttons, highlighted in blue within Figure 6, above. Once done adding, editing, reordering, or removing the commands, click the OK button to get back to the PowerPoint interface. You'll see the new or updated commands available on the QAT, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 7, below.
5. 
   Figure 7: New commands added to the QAT

PowerPoint Keyboard Shortcuts

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