Skip to Content
Excel 2007: The Missing Manual
book

Excel 2007: The Missing Manual

by Matthew MacDonald
December 2006
Beginner
856 pages
52h 17m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Excel 2007: The Missing Manual

Appendix A. Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar

Excel, in previous versions, let its fans move toolbars, rearrange buttons, and even scramble the order of items in the main menu. Reckless customizers could transform Excel so completely that no one else would be able to use their computers, and the instructions in books like this one would be useless.

Excel 2007 clamps down on customization. Unless you’re willing to get your hands dirty with a serious programming language, the ribbon is off limits. Instead, Excel lets you customize one tiny portion of screen real estate—the Quick Access toolbar.

This limitation might sound like a major one, but it’s actually a reasonable compromise. People who love to tweak and refine their workplaces (you know who you are) get to add all the timesaving shortcuts they need. Everyone else can relax. No matter what computer you’re working on, the ribbon is always there, with its comforting sameness and carefully organized tabs.

Note

You can add a tab of your own to the ribbon. However, the process is definitely not easy—in fact, it’s aimed at experienced programmers who aren’t intimidated by gnarly code. The standard for customizing the ribbon is called RibbonX, and it requires a blend of XML and a hard-core programming language like C#. Gearheads can get started with the introduction at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms406046.aspx.

The Quick Access Toolbar

You’ve already seen the Quick Access toolbar (known to Excel nerds as the QAT). It’s ...

Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month,
and much more.

Read now

Unlock full access

More than 5,000 organizations count on O’Reilly

AirBnbBlueOriginElectronic ArtsHomeDepotNasdaqRakutenTata Consultancy Services

QuotationMarkO’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
QuotationMarkI wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
QuotationMarkI’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
QuotationMarkI'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
Mark W.
Embedded Software Engineer

You might also like

Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Excel 2007 for Starters: The Missing Manual

Matthew MacDonald

Publisher Resources

ISBN: 0596527594Errata Page