5 Tips for Customising the Way You Work
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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. Take just a few minutes to customise the layout of the programs you use most often and you could save time and work more comfortably every day.
This article will help get you started with five simple ways to customise your work environment.
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1. Customise Toolbars in Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer
You can add, remove, rearrange, or reformat the buttons on the Standard Buttons toolbar in Microsoft Internet Explorer or Windows Explorer in Microsoft Windows XP. To get started, right-click on the toolbar, and then click Customise.
The Standard Buttons toolbar in Internet Explorer
In addition, there are several easy ways to customise your Web-browsing environment in Internet Explorer, including adding your most frequently used links to their own toolbar, or even adding the Internet Explorer Address bar to your Windows taskbar. Read Customise your Web Browsing Layout for help with these customisations as well as more ideas for making Internet Explorer fit your browsing style.
Note The instructions provided in the linked article for customising toolbar buttons in Internet Explorer work the same for customising the Standard Buttons toolbar in Windows Explorer.
2. Customise Toolbars and Menus in Microsoft Office Programs
Would you like to decide the order of menu items in Office? Perhaps you want to choose the size of toolbar buttons or add your most frequently-used tasks to your own custom toolbar? Well, you might be surprised at just how quick and easy that is to do.
To begin customising your workspace in any Office program, click the Tools menu, and then click Customise. 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 customising toolbars and menus.
This is the Customise dialog box in Microsoft Office OneNote. This dialog box looks very similar for all programs within the Office System.
3. Create and Save your Customisations in Word
In addition to customising toolbars and menus in Microsoft Office Word, you can also use the Customise dialog box to add your own keyboard shortcuts.
By default, when you customise menus, toolbars, or keyboard shortcuts in Word, those customisations 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 customise Normal.dot as a standard across the organisation. 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 customise Word.
To save your own customisations 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. If you are not familiar with your Word startup folder, you can find it easily. To do this, on the Tools menu click Options and the click File Locations. Select Startup in the list provided and click Modify to view the entire startup file path..
Take a brief training course on customising keyboard shortcuts and saving customisations in Word.
4. Customise Outlook Today
By default, when you open Microsoft Office Outlook, you see the Outlook Today pane, which shows upcoming calendar and task information, unopened e-mail, and more. When you click Customise 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 customise the style of your Outlook Today pane.
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The Outlook Today pane is shown, by default, when you start Outlook. It can also be accessed at any time by clicking the top-level folder (named Personal Folders, by default) in the Outlook folder list.
5. Customise the Windows Taskbar and Start Menu
If you liked the earlier tip about adding the Internet Explorer Address bar to the Windows taskbar, you will love this. The fact is that you can customise the Windows taskbar to give you one-click access to any program, folder, or other shortcut you use frequently. You can also decide exactly what appears on the Start Menu and in what order.
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. Get more help for adjusting taskbar and Start Menu options.
The Quick Launch toolbar, customised in this example, shows icons for my Desktop, Outlook, and Word. The double chevron indicates that more program shortcuts are available when you click it.
 | Stephanie Krieger |