Microsoft Project 2007: The Missing Manual

Chapter 25. Customizing Toolbars and Menus

Like many project managers, you start using Project by picking commands from the standard menus and toolbars. After using the program for a while, you may discover that some commands get a lot of exercise while other menu and toolbar entries starve for attention. Project’s built-in menus and toolbars may contain only a few of your favorite commands. By creating custom menus and toolbars, you can assemble your favorite commands into one location that uses a minimum of screen area. It takes a few minutes, but customizing toolbars and menus saves hours in the long run.

Tip

This chapter shows you how to customize menus and toolbars yourself. If you’re not ready to make such major changes, Project has a feature that partially customizes menus for you based on the commands you use the most. The box on Before You Customize a Menu or Toolbar describes personalized menus in detail.

Toolbars and menus both offer commands for you to choose. They just look and behave a little differently:

• Toolbars use icons instead of text to take up less space. They remain visible until you hide them. Toolbars can float anywhere on the screen, so you can move them right next to where you’re working, as Figure 25-1 shows.

  Custom toolbars have an advantage over custom menus, because you can copy them as a foundation for other custom toolbars, or use the Organizer to copy them to other Project files. (You can’t copy a custom menu from its original location unless it’s part ...