How to save PowerPoint commands to the Quick Access Toolbar?

One of our aims at PPT Productivity is to give you one-click access to your most frequently used PowerPoint features (as well as a lot of new features, like a PowerPoint Slide Library, Customizable Shortcut Keys, Shape Locking for PowerPoint and more).

However you might find there are some functions in standard PowerPoint you use a lot that we haven’t included on the PPT Productivity ribbon. Or perhaps you want to make some of the many additional unique PPT Productivity features for PowerPoint accessible regardless of which tab on the Ribbon is displaying. You can customize the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar to save features for fast access.

This post is part of our hints and tips for standard PowerPoint features.  PPT Productivity is a time saving add-in for PowerPoint.  If you’d like to boost your productivity and stop wasting time on alignment, formatting and finding slides to reuse then please visit our homepage and download our free trial today.

What is the Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint?

The PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar (aka PowerPoint QAT) allows you to add frequently used functions and display them for easy access in a bar that appears either above or below the top Ribbon in PowerPoint.   

Where is the Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint?

The PowerPoint QAT displays either above or below the Ribbon. By default the QAT appears above the PowerPoint Ribbon (refer to screenshot Image 1 below for an example). To set your location preference for the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar, select the arrow to open the dropdown menu (refer to the screenshot below - Image 1). At the bottom on the menu, you will see the option to either Show Above the Ribbon or Show Below the Ribbon. Screenshots are provided below to show you the steps for setting QAT location preference.

Can't find the PowerPoint QAT? Note that if you have previously chosen to Hide the Quick Access Toolbar, you can restore it easily by clicking on the dropdown arrow to the right of the PowerPoint Ribbon. Select Show Quick Access Toolbar and the QAT will reappear (in the location you had previously selected).

How to add commands to the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar?

You can easily add commands to the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar. To add a command to the QAT, use the arrow to open the dropdown menu and select More Commands. The PowerPoint Options dialogue box will open with the Quick Access Toolbar option selected.

Perhaps, for example, you want to have easy access to your PPT Productivity ‘Work in Progress’ Status Stamp while working in your animations tab. You can add it to your QAT!

By default, the Popular Commands list in PowerPoint will show in the list of commands you can choose from. Click on the arrow to open the dropdown menu. You can then view commands from each ribbon tab, to find the specific command. In our example to add the Work In Progress stamp, we select the PPT Productivity tab.

Selecting a specific tab displays the list of PowerPoint commands available on that tab. In our example we can see the list of the commands found in PPT Productivity. Select the ‘Work in Progress’ Stamp, click Add.

Clicking Add will add the command to the ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’ list. Note that adding a feature to the QAT in PowerPoint does not remove the command from the original location. It simply 'clones' the command for easy access. Once you’ve finished adding commands to the QAT, click OK.

Your chosen command(s) will now appear on your Quick Access Toolbar below or above the PowerPoint ribbon, ready to use.

How to Hide the QAT?

You can hide the QAT in PowerPoint easily, by selecting the dropdown arrow on the QAT bar. Once you click on the dropdown arrow you will see the option Hide Quick Access Toolbar in the menu. Click this and the QAT disappears from screen.

If you want to be even more efficient, you can assign PowerPoint keyboard shortcuts to your frequently used functions. Visit PPT Productivity's PowerPoint Shortcut Keys page for more details.