Customizing Toolbars
The visual element, such as the various icons found on the toolbars, helps make PowerPoint and other Windows programs easy to use. A quick click on a button and you avoid having to search through endless menus to get to the command you want.
PowerPoint has predefined several toolbars, and by default places a few of them at various locations around the screen. For example, the Standard and Formatting toolbars are combined on a single toolbar beneath the menu, whereas the Drawing toolbar appears at the bottom, above the application bar (see Figure 20.1).
Figure 20.1. Toolbars are placed on the PowerPoint screen to help you access commands easily and quickly.
Repositioning Toolbars
Typically, you expect a toolbar to appear at the top of the screen. However, you've already noted that the Drawing toolbar is located at the bottom of the screen. Other toolbars—when you select them—may appear vertically along the side of the screen. Toolbars that appear on any side of the screen are said to be "docked," whereas "floating" toolbars can be found in the middle of the screen.
You can reposition any toolbar to any location simply by dragging it to the desired location. For example, to move the Standard toolbar to the left side of the screen, follow these steps:
Move the mouse pointer to the Move handle on the toolbar. A four-way arrow appears (see Figure 20.2).
Figure 20.2. Drag toolbars by clicking and dragging the toolbar's Move handle.
Click and, while holding the left mouse button down, drag the toolbar away from the edge. PowerPoint displays the toolbar along with a title bar (see Figure 20.3).
Figure 20.3. A floating toolbar also displays a title bar and can be placed anywhere on the screen.
Continue dragging the toolbar to the desired location—for example, along the left edge.
When the toolbar's title bar disappears and the Move handle reappears, release the mouse button to dock the toolbar along the edge of the screen (see Figure 20.4).
Caution
It's easy to lose toolbars as you drag and drop them. For example, if you accidentally drop a toolbar on top of another one, you may not notice that they've been combined. Use the Move handle to drag one toolbar from on top of another one.
Note
If you drag a toolbar to a new location, it remains there until you move it again, even if you close PowerPoint.
Figure 20.4. Docked toolbars can appear at any side of the screen.
Adding or Removing Toolbars
The Standard and Formatting toolbars contain icons for the most commonly used PowerPoint procedures, such as saving, printing, editing, and formatting. If you need to have other features easily at hand, you can choose additional toolbars for specific tasks:
Note
Some toolbars appear automatically when you select a feature that is helped by the use of a toolbar. For example, if you select a picture, the Picture toolbar automatically appears.
Animation Effects This toolbar enables you to quickly add animation effects to text and picture objects and to preview the results without playing the slideshow.
Clipboard This toolbar enables you to view and selectively retrieve text or other objects you have copied to the Clipboard. You can also use this toolbar to clear the Clipboard memory.
Control Toolbox This toolbox is handy for building dialog boxes using Visual Basic. Most of you will probably never use it.
Outlining If you click in the Outline area of the tri-pane view, the Outlining toolbar automatically appears along the left side, ready to help you create or edit the slideshow outline.
Picture When you click a picture object, the Picture toolbar appears to help you modify the picture's colors, brightness, contrast, lines, and so on.
Reviewing This toolbar assists in collaborative editing of a slideshow. Reviewers can add comments or review comments by others, create Outlook tasks, or send the show as an attachment via email.
Tables and Borders With this toolbar, you can quickly and easily draw or edit freehand tables and borders.
Visual Basic For advanced users, this toolbar assists in the creation of Visual Basic scripts.
Web This toolbar can help you add hyperlinks and search for and link useful information from the Internet.
WordArt Add or modify WordArt objects quickly and easily with this handy toolbar.
You never actually remove a toolbar. Instead, you close it or deselect it. Suppose, for example, that the Web toolbar is displayed, but you really don't need it and want to reclaim the screen space it takes up. Simply choose View, Toolbars, and click Web to deselect that toolbar.
Tip
Don't forget that you can right-click any toolbar to display the Toolbar menu. You then select or deselect the toolbar from that menu.
As for floating toolbars, you can also close them by simply clicking the Close button at the right side of the title bar.
Note
When you close a toolbar that opened automatically, that toolbar no longer automatically opens when needed. You must open the toolbar from the menu to display it, and also to make it appear automatically in the future.
Modifying a Toolbar
Everyone uses PowerPoint differently. You use some of the buttons on the PowerPoint toolbars on a regular basis, whereas you rarely or never use others. PowerPoint makes it easy to add or remove buttons. Follow these steps:
Click the More Buttons button (see Figure 20.5).
Figure 20.5. Click the More Buttons icon to reveal toolbar icons that aren't displayed or to add or remove icons from the toolbar.
Click the Add or Remove Buttons button. This displays a complete list of currently selected and commonly used buttons associated with that particular toolbar (see Figure 20.6).
Figure 20.6. Select or deselect commands to add or remove icons from a toolbar by clicking the Add or Remove Buttons button.
Move the mouse pointer to the down arrow at the bottom of the list to scroll down or to the up arrow at the top of the list to scroll up.
Click a button to select or deselect the button. PowerPoint automatically adds buttons to the end of the toolbar or removes buttons from wherever they're located on the toolbar.
Note
If you want to go back to the original toolbar, but forget which buttons it contained, simply scroll to the bottom of the Add or Remove Buttons menu and click Reset Toolbar.
These are only a few of the ways you can add, remove, or reposition buttons on a toolbar. At the bottom of the Add or Remove Buttons menu is the Customize option. Alternatively, you can choose View, Toolbars, Customize. Both methods display the Customize dialog box (see Figure 20.7).
Figure 20.7. Use the Customize dialog box to customize PowerPoint toolbars.
The Toolbars tab displays a list of all standard PowerPoint toolbars, along with any toolbars you may have added. To add, remove, or reposition buttons on a toolbar, follow these steps:
Make sure the toolbar is visible. From the Toolbars tab, click the toolbar you want to appear on screen.
Click the Commands tab to display a comprehensive list of standard PowerPoint buttons (see Figure 20.8).
Locate the command for the button you want to add. For example, if you want to add a button to help you quickly view your color slides in black and white (as they might be printed on a laser printer), first click View in the Cate_gories list, then scroll through the Commands list until you find Black and White.
Tip
If you're not sure what a command is used for, select the command and click the Description button.
Click and drag the button to the target toolbar.
Position the button using the I-beam mouse pointer as a guide (see Figure 20.9) .
Figure 20.9. Drag a command button to the target toolbar and use the I-beam pointer to position it.
Release the mouse button to add the button to the toolbar.
To save changes to the toolbar, simply close the Customize dialog box.
With the Customize dialog box still open, you can also reposition buttons by simply dragging them to their new location. To remove a button, just drag it off the toolbar.
Some commands are not icon buttons, but are drop-down menu buttons. Instead of executing a command or opening a dialog box, menu buttons provide a drop-down list of additional commands. Adding commands to a menu button is a bit trickier, but still not that difficult. Suppose you want to add a command to an existing menu button. Follow these steps:
Click the Commands tab in the Customize dialog box.
Locate the first button you want to add to the custom menu (for example, Insert, Duplicate Slide).
Drag the command button to the menu you want to change and wait until a menu drops down.
As you drag the command button up and down the menu, a horizontal line shows where you are about to insert the button (see Figure 20.10) .
Figure 20.10. A horizontal line shows where a command is to be added on a menu.
Drop the command on the drop-down menu.
Repeat steps 2–5 until you have added all the menu commands you want.
As you add, move, or delete buttons, you may find that you want to group your buttons so they're more easily distinguished by function. You can do this by adding a vertical line between buttons on the toolbar. To add a group line, follow these steps:
With the Customize dialog box open, click the button on the far left in the group you want to separate.
Click the Modify Selection button to display a menu of choices (refer to Figure 20.8).
To remove a group line, simply repeat steps 1–3. Clicking Begin a Group a second time deselects the option and removes the line.
If you make many changes to a toolbar, you'll find it's nearly impossible to remember which buttons are original to the toolbar and which ones you added. If you decide you want to restore your original toolbar, you can click the Toolbars tab in the Customize dialog box, select the toolbar you want to restore, and click Reset. PowerPoint asks if you're sure you want to do this, and if you're sure, just click OK.
Creating a New Toolbar
If you're like many of us, it seems that the buttons we use on a regular basis are scattered about on different toolbars. Perhaps you'd like to create your own toolbar with all those buttons you use the most. Creating your own toolbar also means you won't have to modify PowerPoint's original toolbars.
To create your own toolbar, follow these steps:
Choose View, Toolbars, Customize to access the Customize dialog box.
Click the Toolbars tab.
Click the New button. PowerPoint displays the New Toolbar dialog box (see Figure 20.11).
Figure 20.11. Create a new toolbar using the New Toolbar dialog box.
Edit the name of the toolbar (for example, "My Tools").
Click OK or press Enter, and PowerPoint displays a new floating toolbar (see Figure 20.12).
Figure 20.12. A new toolbar also needs command buttons to make it complete.
Click the Commands tab to add and arrange buttons and groups.
→ To learn more about accessing the Commands tab, see Modifying a Toolbar.
Dock the toolbar along one of the sides of the screen, or position the floating toolbar where you want it to appear when you access it.
Customizing Toolbar Buttons
The power and ease-of-use derived from using toolbars instead of menus depend largely on the ease with which you can visually identify a button and its function. If you find that PowerPoint's standard toolbar icons simply don't convey to you the visual information you need to quickly identify what the button does, you can modify the icon or even create an entirely new one.
To modify a toolbar icon, follow these steps:
Access the Customize dialog box by choosing View, Toolbars, Customize. Select the Toolbars tab.
Select the toolbar that contains the icon you want to change (make sure the toolbar is visible).
Click the icon you want to change.
Click Modify Selection to display the menu that enables you to modify the icon (see Figure 20.13).
Figure 20.13. The Modify Selection menu enables you to customize a toolbar button.
Choose the options you want to change.
Among the changes you can make are the following:
Reset This enables you to restore the icon to its original PowerPoint default. Any changes you have made to the icon will be lost.
Name This is the text version of the icon that is used if you choose to display text along with or instead of the icon, or if the command appears in a toolbar menu. Also, if you point the mouse at the icon, a text prompt appears to remind you what the icon does. If you add the ampersand (&) before a letter in the name, that letter appears underlined in menus where you can select the command using the keyboard.
Tip
The name you choose can be very important in making it easy to identify the function of a button. Be as descriptive as possible, but also try to keep the name brief because the name may appear in menus as well.
Button Image commands These are used to modify the appearance of the icon itself.
Default Style This displays the icon as an image when it appears as a button, and as image and text when it is located in menus.
Text Only (Always) This ignores the image and displays only text, including the underlined character when appropriate.
Text Only (in Menus) This displays an image when the command is a button, but ignores the image when the command is located in menus.
Image and Text This displays both image and text, even when the command is a button.
Begin a Group This adds a vertical line to the left of the icon, helping to establish the beginning of a group of icons.
Assign Hyperlink This enables you to add a link to the icon which, when clicked, takes you to the Web or to another document or program.
→ For details on adding links to PowerPoint objects, see Using PowerPoint's Web Features.
Customizing Toolbar Icon Images
Let's face it. Some toolbar icons simply don't mean anything to you. Fortunately, PowerPoint enables you to change the icon, or even to create your own icon image.
One simple way to change a button's icon is to identify another button that has an image you'd like to use, then copy that image to the button you want to change. To copy a button's image, follow these steps:
Access the toolbar Customize dialog box.
Locate the icon you want to copy and right-click it to display the Modify Button menu (see Figure 20.14).
Figure 20.14. Use the Modify Button menu to copy and paste button icons.
Tip
You can copy any icon from any toolbar that's visible. You can also temporarily add a button to your current toolbar, copy it, and then delete it.
Choose Copy Button Image.
Locate the button you want to change and right-click it to display the Modify Button menu.
Choose Paste Button Image.
Note
Although you can do so, you should avoid having two identical images on the same toolbar. Furthermore, you should avoid using images that are commonly used for other functions (such as Save, Print, and so on).
Tip
Don't be afraid to experiment with changing toolbar icons. You want to create icons that work for you, and you can always reset the images if things go awry.
You can also change the button icon by selecting an entirely different image or by creating or editing an entirely new image.
To select a new image, follow these steps:
Access the toolbar Customize dialog box.
Right-click the toolbar image you want to change.
Choose Change Button Image from the menu. PowerPoint displays a palette of image icons (see Figure 20.15).
Figure 20.15. If you don't like the current button image, you can choose from a palette of alternative images.
Click the image you want.
To edit an image, or to create your own, follow these steps:
Access the toolbar Customize dialog box.
Right-click the toolbar button you want to change.
Choose Edit Button Image from the menu. PowerPoint displays the Button Editor dialog box (see Figure 20.16).
Use the following tools to make changes to the image:
You can view the results of your changes in the Preview area of the dialog box.
You can move the entire image up, down, left, or right by clicking the arrows in the Move area of the dialog box.
Click a color from the Colors palette, and then click each "pixel" (square) to change its color.
Right-click a pixel to "pick up" the color from that pixel. Then continue using the left mouse button to use that color.
Click the Erase button and then click pixels to clear color from them.
Click the Clear button to erase the entire picture.
Click Cancel to abort any editing changes you have made.
Figure 20.16. Let your creative side take over as you create or edit new button images.
Tip
Even if you plan to create your own image, you can get a head start by first changing the image to something that closely resembles what you want to create. You then simply edit that image instead of completely starting from scratch.
Click OK to accept your editing changes and to change the icon image on the toolbar.
Close the Customize dialog box.
If you decide you want to restore the original image to the toolbar button, follow these steps:
Right-click the toolbar and choose Customize.
Right-click the icon and choose Reset Button Image.
Close the Customize dialog box.