Where’s my shortcut toolbar in Excel 365?
Q Until recently, I had a Windows 7 machine running an older version of Microsoft Office (2016, I think). However, I upgraded to a new laptop running Windows 11 and Microsoft 365. So far, so good – but I don’t seem to have the little row of shortcut icons that I had in my old Excel setup, at the top left. I can’t remember all the icons that I had here, but they allowed me to access various functions, such as applying borders with a single click. I can access these functions in other ways, but I miss my little one-click icons, because they were always present. Has Microsoft killed them off? Charles Collier
A You’re referring to what Microsoft calls the Quick Access Toolbar. The company hasn’t killed it, but it has moved positions a little since older versions. It sounds like on your new PC it’s either disabled or simply doesn’t have any commands.
To switch it on, at the far bottomright-hand side of the ribbon menu, click the little down-pointing arrow and then click to tick Show Quick Access Toolbar. The toolbar will now appear below the ribbon menu. It will probably be empty save the Customize Quick Access Toolbar button (another down-pointing arrow, with a line above it). Click this to see a list of common commands. Just click to add one to the toolbar or, to see all available commands, click More Commands (see screenshot above). Then, from the ‘Choose commands from’ dropdown menu, pick All Commands. Now just use the displayed list and Add and Remove buttons to customise your toolbar, clicking OK when you’re done.