What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?

  • October 28, 2020
  • What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
    Lee-Ann

One of our aims at PPT Productivity is to give you one-click access to your most frequently used PowerPoint features (as well as a lot of new features, like a PowerPoint Slide Library, Customizable Shortcut Keys, Shape Locking for PowerPoint and more).

However you might find there are some functions in standard PowerPoint you use a lot that we haven’t included on the PPT Productivity ribbon. Or perhaps you want to make some of the many additional unique PPT Productivity features for PowerPoint accessible regardless of which tab on the Ribbon is displaying. You can customize the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar to save features for fast access.

This post is part of our hints and tips for standard PowerPoint features.  PPT Productivity is a time saving add-in for PowerPoint.  If you’d like to boost your productivity and stop wasting time on alignment, formatting and finding slides to reuse then please visit our homepage and download our free trial today.

What is the Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint?

The PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar (aka PowerPoint QAT) allows you to add frequently used functions and display them for easy access in a bar that appears either above or below the top Ribbon in PowerPoint.   

Where is the Quick Access Toolbar in PowerPoint?

The QAT displays either above or below the PowerPoint Ribbon. By default the QAT appears above the Ribbon (refer to screenshot Image 1 below for an example). To set your location preference for the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar, select the arrow to open the dropdown menu (refer to the screenshot below - Image 1). At the bottom on the menu, you will see the option to either Show Above the Ribbon or Show Below the Ribbon. Screenshots are provided below to show you the steps for setting QAT location preference.

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Image 1 - PowerPoint quick access toolbar displayed above the ribbon

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Image 2 - PowerPoint quick access toolbar displayed below the Ribbon

Note that if you have previously chosen to Hide the Quick Access Toolbar, you can restore it easily by clicking on the dropdown arrow to the right of the PowerPoint Ribbon. Select Show Quick Access Toolbar and the QAT will reappear (in the location you had previously selected).

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Image 3 - How to restore QAT if you have previously hidden it

You can easily add commands to the PowerPoint Quick Access Toolbar. To add a command to the QAT, use the arrow to open the dropdown menu and select More Commands. The PowerPoint Options dialogue box will open with the Quick Access Toolbar option selected.

Perhaps, for example, you want to have easy access to your PPT Productivity ‘Work in Progress’ Stamp while working in your animations tab. You can add it to your QAT!

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Screenshot of PowerPoint Options Menu showing QAT Options

By default, Popular Commands will show in the list of commands you can choose from. Click on the arrow to open the dropdown menu. You can then view commands from each ribbon tab to find the specific command. In our example to add the Work In Progress stamp, we select the PPT Productivity tab.

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Screenshot of PowerPoint Options Menu showing QAT Options, with Home Tab Selected

Selecting a specific tab displays the list of commands available on that tab. In our example we can see the list of the commands found in PPT Productivity. Select the ‘Work in Progress’ Stamp, click Add.

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Screenshot of PowerPoint Options Menu showing QAT Options - How to add a feature

Clicking Add will add the command to the ‘Customize Quick Access Toolbar’ list. Adding something to the QAT does not remove the command from the original location. It 'clones' the command for easy access. Once you’ve finished adding commands to the QAT, click OK.

Your chosen command(s) will now appear on your Quick Access Toolbar, ready to use.

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?
Screenshot of PowerPoint QAT with a new feature added

How to Hide the QAT?

You can hide the QAT easily, by selecting the dropdown arrow on the QAT bar. Once you click on the dropdown arrow you will see the option Hide Quick Access Toolbar in the menu. Click this and the QAT disappears from screen.

If you want to be even more efficient, you can assign keyboard shortcuts to your frequently used functions. Visit PPT Productivity's PowerPoint Shortcut Keys page for more details.

Want to create polished presentations faster? With PPT Productivity, boost your team's productivity with faster formatting, easier editing, collaboration tools and more! If you're not yet using PPT Productivity, download our free 30 day trial today. We offer free one-on-one training and flexible licensing to suit individuals, teams or enterprise.

What feature of MS PowerPoint that gives you access to the most commonly used commands?

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Hints and Tips     Quick Access Toolbar, PowerPoint Hacks, PowerPoint Productivity, PowerPoint Presentations, PowerPoint shortcuts

What are the common feature of MS PowerPoint?

It is an absolute presentation graphics package that gives you everything needed to create a professional-looking presentation. PowerPoint offers word processing, drawing, outlining, graphing, and presentation management tools.

What gives an access to the most commonly commands including copy and paste in the PowerPoint?

The Ribbon contains all of the commands you will need to perform common tasks in PowerPoint.

What is the most common use of PowerPoint?

Microsoft PowerPoint is a software application that is particularly used to present data and information by using text, diagrams with animation, images, and transitional effects, etc in the form of slides.

What are the commands in PowerPoint?

What are PowerPoint Shortcut Keys.
Insert a new slide: CTRL + SHIFT + M..
Duplicate the current slide: CTRL + SHIFT + D. ... .
Select text: CTRL + A..
Center text within a box: CTRL + E..
Right align text within a box: CTRL + R..
Left align text within a box: CTRL + L..
Make text smaller: CTRL + SHIFT + <.
Make text bigger: CTRL + SHIFT >.