Menus display a list of commands
In Word, menus are used to display a list of commands. Most menus are
located on the menu bar at the top of the Word window pane; shortcut menus appear when you
right-click text, objects, and other such items.
Toolbars can contain buttons with images, menus, or a combination of both.
Word’s default setting display the Standard and Formatting toolbars side by side
below the menu bar.
You can also add a custom menu to your toolbar. For ‘power
users’ custom menus enable them to increase their productivity rate as they can work
on the document more directly. By creating these custom menus, power users can perform a
complex task in one click.
Adding a custom menu to a toolbar
The next section explains how to add a custom menu to a toolbar.
In Word, open a blank document and do as follows
Go to View | Toolbars | Customize...
Click Name on the right pane.
In the New Toolbar popup screen, name
your new toolbar.
Select Add a Custom Menu to a Toolbar from the
drop-down menu.
This creates a small grey box in the middle of your document.
Drag this onto the toolbar.
You have now created a new toolbar.
Adding menus
The next step is to add some menus.
Go to View | Toolbars | Customize...
Select the toolbar that you created.
Click the Commands tab, i.e. the tab next to Toolbars.
From the Categories list, select Insert.
From the right-hand pane, select Page Break.
Drag Page Break over to the new
toolbar that you created.
Click Close.
You have now added the Page Break menu to your toolbar.
To delete a menu item from the toolbar
On the toolbar, right-click the menu
item to be deleted.
Select Customize. This displays the Customize popup
box.
Right-click the menu item you want to
delete. This displays a series of options.
Select Delete to remove the menu from the toolbar.
To assign a link to a menu item
Right-click the menu item you want to
assign a web link to.
Select Customize.
Select Assign Hyperlink and Open.
Enter the web address and click Close.
The button now has a hyperlink to that website.
To change the button’s image on a menu item
Your menu item now has the new image.
Benefits of creating custom toolbars
For a Technical Publications Manager, there are considerable benefits to
be had by creating custom toolbar for their team members. For example, if you’ve
asked someone to update several large documents, you could create a custom toolbar with
all the necessary formats in place.
This means that instead of the user having to manually go to Format
| Font | Font Style | Size etc., for every single modification, they could just
click a button on the toolbar and perform this task instantly.
And, as well as sparing your colleagues from Carpel Tunnel
Syndrome, this will ensure that they modify your document exactly as it was
defined in the toolbar. |
