Setting Up the Quick Access Toolbar in Microsoft Word

The Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) is a very useful feature of Microsoft Word and the other major Office applications. Based on my own observations, it's one that not many people know about or use. It's a user-customizable toolbar that sits either above the ribbon in the title bar or just below the ribbon. If you configure it properly, you can hide the ribbon most of the time and save quite a bit of screen real estate, which is especially handy on wide-screen monitors.

This is a screen grab of Word 365 after setting up the QAT and hiding the ribbon. 

QAT with only Ribbon tabs showing

Microsoft buries the QAT setup in the options menu, but once you find it, it's easy enough to set up. These instructions are based on Word 365, but the setup hasn't changed much since Word 2007*. 

1. Open any Word file. 

2. Open the File menu and click Options.

3. Click Quick Access Toolbar. The Customize Quick Access Toolbar dialog box appears.

My QAT commands 1/2

4. From the Choose commands from list, select a command, then click the Add button to move it to the Customize Quick Access Toolbar list.

5. Optionally, use the dropdown of the Choose command list to filter the commands by ribbon tab, macros, or all commands.

6. To hide the command labels, clear the Always show command labels checkbox. 

6. Once you are done, click OK to save your QAT. The QAT appears in the title bar above the ribbon. 

To change the position of the QAT or to hide it, click the arrow at the right of the QAT and select the appropriate command. 

My QAT commands 2/2

Once you have a QAT that's customized to your needs, you'll wonder how you got along without it. 

* Per this article from Thurrott.com, Microsoft tried to remove the QAT from Office 365, but had to reinstate it after complaints from users.