About menus and toolbars

A menu displays a list of commands. Some of these commands have images next to them so you can quickly associate the command with the image. Most menus are located on the menu bar, which is the toolbar at the top of the screen. Toolbars can contain buttons, menus, or a combination of both.

  Menu bar

  Menu command

  Toolbar

  Button

Displaying only the commands and buttons that you use

Microsoft Office automatically customizes menus and toolbars based on how often you use the commands. When you first start an Office program, only the most basic commands appear. Then, as you work, the menus and toolbars adjust so that only the commands and toolbar buttons you use most often appear.

Displaying all the commands on a menu

To look for a command that you don't use often or have never used before, click the arrows at the bottom of the menu to show all the commands. You can also double-click the menu to expand it. When you expand one menu, all of the menus are expanded until you choose a command or perform another action. When you click a command on the expanded menu, the command is immediately added to the short version of the menu. If you do not use the command often, it is dropped from the short version of the menu.

Positioning toolbars on the same row

Toolbars can be positioned next to each other in the same row. When you put multiple toolbars in the same row, there might not be enough room to display all of the buttons. If there isn't enough room, the buttons that you have used most recently are displayed.

Seeing all of the toolbar buttons

You can resize to display more buttons, or you can show all buttons on a toolbar. To see a list of buttons that won't fit on a built-in docked toolbar, click Toolbar Options at the end of the toolbar. When you use a button that is not displayed on the toolbar, that button is moved to the toolbar, and a button that has not been used recently is dropped to the Toolbar Options list.

Customizing menus and toolbars

You can customize menus and toolbars yourself; you can add and remove buttons and menus on toolbars, create your own custom toolbars, hide or display toolbars, and move toolbars. You can 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 — but you can't hide the menu bar.

Customizing your applications

Using Microsoft Access, you can create your own applications with a user interface that has the "look and feel" of a Microsoft Windows application. In addition to the toolbar features common to all Office applications, you can do the following:

• Create, delete, and rename your own custom toolbars, menu bars (including submenus), and shortcut menus.
• Convert the custom toolbars from previous-version macros.
• Import toolbars from another Access data file.
• Enhance custom toolbars by adding keys and help information to buttons and commands.
• Protect changes to toolbars, such as movement and resizing.
• Attach toolbars to a form or report.
• Add Microsoft Visual Basic functions to buttons and commands.

Note   In the PivotTable list, spreadsheet, and chart tools on a data access page, certain toolbar functionalities differ from the rest of Microsoft Access.