All the Office 2007/2010 applications have the new Quick Access Toolbar located above the tabs in the ribbon navigator. This article describes how you can easily customise this toolbar by adding your own favourite commands to the toolbar. In this way you can have a set of commands at your fingertips which you can apply with just one mouse click.

With any of the Office 2007/2010 Applications launched you should see the Quick Access Toolbar at the top left of your screen above the tabs. The toolbar can also be positioned just below the ribbon navigator. To see how this is done click to pop down at the far right hand end of the toolbar and choose "Show Below the Ribbon", or if it's already there choose "Select Above the Ribbon". The toolbar can only be positioned either below or above the Ribbon rather than anywhere else.

Each Office 2007/2010 application has its own Quick Access Toolbar, so you need to add commands in each application separately. However once added, the extra buttons normally remain there permanently, so are then available for all application files. You can if you want to custom the toolbar only for a particular application file, but the default is to customise for all files.

You can add command buttons to the toolbar in two main ways. Firstly you can use the pop down selector at the right hand end of the toolbar and make a selection, and secondly can right click over any existing command on the Tabs and add the command directly. We'll look at using the pop down selector method first.

If you click the pop down selector you'll see a short list of the most popular commands, for example New, Open and Save. If you left click on any one, this command button is added to the toolbar. You can only add the commands one at time in this way. You might like to add as many commands as you want to from this list, down as far as "More Commands". As you add each command the toolbar expands to accommodate the new button.

If you want to add a command not in this list on the pop down, for example "Save As", you can do this as follows. Click the pop down and choose "More Commands". The Application Options panel opens where you'll see two columns. Above the left hand column you'll the category "Popular Commands" selected. Change this to "All Commands" and the left hand list will refresh to show every command available in the application.

The list is now very long and shows hundreds of commands. Carefully scroll down this list, which is in alphabetical order, with numbers first, until you find the command you want, for example "Save As". Click once on the command in the left column to select it, then click the arrow right button to add this command to the right hand column, which shows the commands currently in the toolbar. Once added you'll see that you can also change the order of commands in the right hand column to change the button order on the toolbar. Then click OK to finish. Now you'll see the added buttons on the toolbar in the order you want. Next we'll look at adding buttons using the right click method.

Office 2007 and Office 2010 behave slightly differently in how this works, but the actions are the same for commands on any tab. As an example choose any tab you want and right click over the command. Then left click on "Add to Quick Access Toolbar", and lo and behold the command is added to the toolbar - this can be much easier than the first method. You can add any command from any tab in this way, although you'll still need to use the first method for commands not on any of the tabs.

In Office 2007 you can also choose the Office button, and right click on any of the commands, for example Prepare or Close, and add those to the Toolbar in the same way. However in Office 2010 if you choose the File tab, you cannot right click on any of the commands, but you can using any of the other tabs.

You can also remove commands from the Quick Access Toolbar if you wish. To do this, choose the right hand pop down selector, then "More Commands". You can then select one of your added commands in the right hand list and click the left pointing button to remove it. The command will now be removed from the toolbar. You can also reset the toolbar and remove all the added commands by clicking the Reset button. Then click OK to complete. If you do this the toolbar will return to the initial state with only four default buttons.

So you can customise the Quick Access Toolbar in two different ways to add your own command buttons. This lets you apply commands with just a single mouse click. This can be particularly helpful for new Office 2007/2010 users who are still finding their way around the new Ribbon Navigator, and for experienced users who need to use particular commands via a single click. If you'd like to learn more about the Office 2007/2010 applications a really effective way can be to attend a training course. There are many available and a good training course can really help you build your Office 2007/2010 skills.