5 tips for customizing the way you work
From toolbars and menus to shortcut keys, what you see when you first get your new computer does not have to be what you work with every day. It takes just a few moments to customize the layout of the programs you use most often—and you can save time and work more comfortably every day. This article outlines five simple ways to customize your work environment.
On This Page
1. Customize your toolbars
Customizing your toolbars is one easy way to put the information you need where you need it—making it easy to work.
Customizing Windows Explorer
With Microsoft Windows XP, you can easily add, remove, rearrange, or reformat the buttons on the Standard Buttons toolbar in Windows Explorer. To get started, right-click on the toolbar, and then click Customize. From there, you can choose what components to display.
If you're using Windows Vista, your toolbars customize themselves. It sounds odd, but it's actually very convenient. This is how it works: Windows Vista only displays the tasks you can accomplish in Windows Explorer. For instance, if you're in Documents, you may see this:
But when you're in Computer, you'll see this:
Customizing Internet Explorer
There are several easy ways to customize Internet Explorer to make browsing the Web easy, such as adding your most frequently used links to your own toolbar. Read Customize your Web Browsing Layout for help with Internet Explorer 6—or check out the streamlined layout Internet Explorer 7.
2. Customize toolbars in Microsoft Office programs
Everyone works differently—and we all have commands that we use more frequently than others. It's surprisingly easy to customize toolbars to reflect the way you work.
| |
| |
 |
|
Customize Office 2003 toolbars
|
|
| |
|
|
|
To begin customizing your workspace in any Office program, click the Tools menu, and then click Customize. The dialog box that opens includes a Toolbars tab, where you can manage toolbars and even create your own; the Commands tab, where you can click and drag any command listed to the toolbar or menu of your choice (as well as rearrange menu commands); and the Options tab where you can select formatting preferences for how your toolbars and menus appear. Take a brief training course on customizing toolbars and menus.
display:block
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
Customize Office 2007 toolbars
|
|
| |
|
|
|
Office 2007 programs all feature the Ribbon—a tabbed interface version of traditional pull down menus. The Ribbon organizes tasks contextually, relating to a type of activity, such as writing or laying out a page.
display:block
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While there's no need to customize the Ribbon—it automatically makes finding and performing tasks simple—you can customize the Quick Access Toolbar to add buttons that represent the commands you use most often. The Quick Access Toolbar is located above the Ribbon next to the Microsoft Office Button.
display:block
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To customize the Quick Access Toolbar, simply click the appropriate tab to dispay the command you want to add. Right click the command, and then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar on the shortcut menu
display:none
|
![]() |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
3. Create and save your customizations in Word 2003 and 2007
In addition to customizing toolbars and menus in Microsoft Office Word 2003, you can also use the Customize dialog box to add your own keyboard shortcuts.
By default, when you customize menus, toolbars, or keyboard shortcuts in Word, those customizations are saved to the Normal template (Normal.dot). While saving settings in Normal.dot makes them available to all of your documents, it is common for companies to customize Normal.dot as a standard across the organization. If that is the case where you work, you may not have the ability to keep your own custom version of Normal.dot—but you can still customize Word.
To save your own customizations without using the Normal.dot template, just create your own template and add your custom toolbars and keyboard shortcuts to that file. Then, save your custom template in your Word startup folder so that your settings are always available, just to you, in every document.
4. Customize Outlook today
By default, when you open Microsoft Office Outlook 2003 and 2007, you see the Outlook Today pane, which shows upcoming calendar and task information, unopened e-mail, and more. When you click Customize Outlook Today in the top-right corner of that pane, you can choose whether or not to view Outlook Today when you start the program as well as what to include in that pane from your e-mail folders, calendars, and tasks. You can even customize the style of your Outlook Today pane.
Outlook 2003 Today Pane
Outlook 2007 Today Pane
5. Customize the Windows Taskbar
If you have programs or folders you use all the time—and don't want to clutter your desktop with them—use the Windows Taskbar for one-click access.
To add program shortcuts to the Windows taskbar, start with the Quick Launch toolbar. To do this, right-click on the taskbar, click Toolbars, and then click Quick Launch. The Quick Launch toolbar gives you icons for one-click access to the Windows Desktop and Internet Explorer, and you can add any programs you choose just by dragging a shortcut to that toolbar.
The Quick Launch toolbar in Windows XP
The Quick Launch toolbar in Windows Vista
