All Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, etc.) allow for the use of personalized toolbars and menus. For example, you can add and remove buttons and menus on toolbars, create your own custom toolbars, hide or display toolbars, and move toolbars to different areas of your screen. You can also customize the menu bar the same way you customize any built-in toolbar — for example, you can quickly add and remove buttons and menus on the menu bar.
This week's Computing Tip is the first in a three-part series on how to customize your Microsoft Office menus and toolbars. To begin the series, we are going to address a feature that we frequently receive questions about in Office applications on the Windows platform -- abbreviated menus. Although this same feature is not seen in Office X for Macintosh, it is helpful for everyone to know about it since Mac users must sometimes work on a PC (i.e. technology classrooms). Office for Macintosh always show the complete list of commands on a menu.
The first time you use the menus in any Office application,
the menus will display only the most basic commands rather than the full
list of commands. At the bottom of the list, you will see a double chevron
.
If you click the double chevron
(also called an "unfold button"), the full list of commands will
appear. You can also position your mouse pointer over the double chevron
until the menu expands.
As you work, the menus adjust so that the commands you use most often appear on the "short list". That is, Office personalized your menu. Here's an example - the View menu on the left only shows 4 items. Clicking on the "unfold button" displays the remainder of items. If Header and Footer is selected, the item will automatically appear on the abbreviated list the next time the View menu is accessed.
Another option is to leave a menu open for a few seconds and it will expand automatically. (If this doesn't occur, make sure that Tools > Customize > Options > Show full menus after a short delay is checked).
If you prefer to have ALL menu items appear at all times, uncheck Menus show recently used commands first.
One last note - most users prefer to see the Standard and Formatting Toolbars in separate rows. To make this change, select Tools > Customize > Options > Deselect 'Standard and Formatting toolbars share one row'.