Icons you SHOULD have in your Excel Quick Access Toolbar

the quick access toolbar or q80 as it's also known is not only a handy place for commonly used icons but it also enables some super easy keyboard shortcuts for your favorite tools in this video i'm going to show you how to set it up and the rules you should follow when deciding which icons get a position in this prime real estate i'll also show you which icons i've got in mine the qat are a group of icons that sit above the ribbon you can display them below the ribbon and clicking on the drop down and then show below the ribbon however in this location it adds an extra row to the header and i think it's a waste of space so i prefer to display it above the ribbon now you can add icons to the qat from the list of options listed in the drop down here or you can add an icon by right clicking it and then add to quick access toolbar now you can even add icons that aren't available in the ribbon via the more commands in the drop-down or you can right-click the q80 and customize quick access toolbar on the left you can search through the popular commands that's the default or you can click on the drop down here and see commands not in the ribbon all commands or you can choose to look at a specific tab and even the contextual tabs if we look at all commands you'll see that the list is enormous so it's a good idea to check what the icon is called by hovering over it in the ribbon before searching that way you know what you're looking for you can type in the first letter of the icon name for example if i type in p it jumps me to the section of icons that begin with p so that's a little easier to search once you find the icon you can double click it to add it to your quick access toolbar or click the add button you can rearrange the order of the icons using the up and down arrows and you can click remove to take any out that you no longer need now the first nine buttons are prime real estate so keep those for your most used buttons and i'll show you why next once you've got your q80 all set you can easily access your most frequently used icons without needing to navigate to their tab on the ribbon just click on them with the mouse but even better than that if you press the alt key you can see the number for each icon and then it's just a case of entering the corresponding number so let's say i want to clear the filters in this table we can see the clear filters icon is the third one along so all i need to do is press alt and three and my filters are removed of course you can also access the buttons after position nine for example undo is zero nine so all i need to do is enter zero and nine i then have to select which item i want to undo i can press enter of course the point is it's just not as easy as the first nine buttons because they only require you to enter alt and then one number now before you rush off and set up your quick access toolbar i want to share my rules for deciding which icons get a lucky spot there's no perfect list of icons to include in the quick access toolbar but for such a prime piece of excel real estate it's important to consider what gets a spot based on some strict criteria and for me that criteria is as follows firstly there must not already be a super easy keyboard shortcut for example don't put copy paste or undo up there everyone knows ctrl c for copy ctrl v for paste and ctrl z for undo second it should save me multiple clicks most of the time the home tab of a ribbon is visible so putting commands in the qat that are available here with a single click is probably a waste of time one of the icons in my qat is the clear all button which requires a click on the drop down and then another click to select clear all and there's no easy keyboard shortcut already available which is why it's in my qat and third it should be something i use regularly now just because i have an icon in my q80 doesn't mean you should if you don't use powerpivot then don't waste a spot in the q80 with the power pivot icon and remember update your qat regularly because your work habits change so be sure to update it in line with your current needs now you might be wondering why i have some icons i expressly said not to include so i'll explain each one first paste values now although there are a couple of keyboard shortcuts for this none are as short as alt one the second button clear all requires two clicks to get to the button and it's something i use regularly to clear pivot tables which the delete key simply can't handle the third one is clear all filters super handy when working with tables which i do a lot fourth one is refresh all and it's great for refreshing all your queries and pivot tables in a workbook in one click there is a keyboard shortcut ctrl alt f5 but i find it a bit cumbersome fifth one is launch power query editor now there's no practical keyboard shortcut for getting to this and it's at least a two-click task depending on the route you take six is insert pivot table it's at least a couple of clicks or a cumbersome keyboard shortcut alt n vt seven is open the power pivot window again at least a couple of clicks unless you're lucky enough to be on the correct tab of the ribbon when you need it eight is select objects i use this all the time and it bugs me having to click the drop down and then go all the way to the bottom of the list to select the icon nine is manage conditional formatting rules again at least two clicks and it's right at the bottom of the list you can tell i'm lazy undo now this is outside of my top nine so it's not taking up prime position i keep it in the qat so i can see the undo stack i might want to undo a bunch of things in one go so it's handy to have it there eleven is redo to be honest i could probably get rid of this icon because i rarely use it and lastly number 12 is save now i have auto save always turned on i haven't saved this file yet so we don't see the auto save button and of course we have the keyboard shortcut ctrl s which most people know but sometimes i just like the satisfaction of clicking that button and knowing that the file is actually saving just call me old-fashioned well i hope you found these tips useful if you like this video please give it a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel for more and why not share it with your friends who might also find it useful thanks for watching

Channel: MyOnlineTrainingHub

Views: 14,684

Rating: 4.9890862 out of 5

Keywords: excel shortcuts, excel shortcut keys

Id: 61m_7w9eI2Q

Length: 6min 48sec (408 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 03 2021