Customize Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows

The Quick Access Toolbar known as the QAT is the only toolbar available for customization in PowerPoint 2013 for Windows, here you can place your most used commands so that they are accessible to you with just a single click. You already learned how you can change the location of the QAT in our Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint 2013 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 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 the 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 blue within Figure 2.
2. 
   Figure 2: Options within File menu
3. Alternatively, right-click anywhere over your QAT or Ribbon and choose the Customize Quick Access Toolbar option, you've already seen a similar contextual menu, as shown in Figure 1, previously on this page.
2. Either way, this opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box, as shown in Figure 3, 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 3.
3. 
   Figure 3: PowerPoint Options dialog box
4. All the options for customizing the QAT are explained below, as marked in Figure 3:

A. Choose Commands From

5. Here you will select the commands which you want to add to the QAT. Click on the drop-down list 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.

B. Customize Quick Access Toolbar

6. Here you will choose between whether you want to customize the QAT for all documents, or only for the current presentation. As you can see in Figure 1, 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

7. 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. Arrange Commands

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

E. Reset

9. 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

10. Lets you export and import your customizations, learn more in our Reset, Import, and Export QAT Customizations tutorial.
3. Add the commands you use often. For this tutorial, we have added Copy, Open, and Paste commands within the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, below.
4. 
   Figure 4: Commands added to the QAT
4. Once done adding, editing, or removing the commands, click the OK button to get back to the PowerPoint interface. You'll see the new commands added to the QAT, as shown in Figure 5, below.
5. 
   Figure 5: New commands added to the QAT

Keyboard Shortcuts for QAT Commands

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 in Figure 6, below. If the number reads 8, then the keyboard shortcut for that command is Alt + 8. Similarly, if the number reads 08, then the keyboard shortcut for that command is Alt + 08. You'll need to be quick with pressing your keys if you have a double-character shortcut key!

Figure 6: QAT shortcuts are shown in tool tip