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Customizing the Access Workspace

Any good application provides some capability for the user to customize the workspace — from adding and rearranging buttons on the toolbar to dragging toolbars and panes around to optimize the layout.

Access is certainly a good software application, so it does what any good application does: It allows you to customize the workspace. You can move the Quick Access toolbar, you can add buttons from the main tabs to the Quick Access toolbar, you can resize the Ribbon, you can tweak the status bar, and you can decide how (or if) your ScreenTips are displayed as you mouse over the tools.

There’s no need to do any customization, really — the default settings for toolbar locations, button combinations, and onscreen help are designed with the average or most common user in mind, and they’re pretty good. On the other hand, you may just want to tweak things to feel at home. (Think of the times you’ve fluffed the pillows on the couch before lying down — they may not have needed it, but you want to make your mark on your environment, right? Right.)

Repositioning the Quick Access toolbar

For the position of the Quick Access toolbar, you have two choices:

  • Above the Ribbon, which is the default location
  • Below the Ribbon

To move the Quick Access toolbar, simply right-click it and choose Show Quick Access Toolbar Below the Ribbon. Figure 2-12 shows the pop-up menu with this command available. Note that if you click the down-pointing triangle at the right end of the Quick Access toolbar, the command is Show Below the Ribbon.

When you place the Quick Access toolbar below the Ribbon, you’ll notice that the same command (viewed by right-clicking the toolbar in its new location) is now Show Quick Access Toolbar Above the Ribbon. So it toggles like that, switching from Above to Below, depending on its current location.

Tip
You don’t have to right-click specifically the Quick Access toolbar in order to reposition it. The aforementioned command (Show . . .) is available in the pop-up menu that appears when you right-click the tabs, too.

Figure 2-12: Right-click the Quick Access toolbar to move it above or below the Ribbon.
Figure 2-12: Right-click the Quick Access toolbar to move it above or below the Ribbon.
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