Tài liệu [ Team LiB ] Customizing Your Menus and Toolbars Outlook pptx

The second method of customizing toolbars is the Rearrange Commands button found by choosing the Customize, Commands menu selection.. Open the Customize dialog using Tools, Customize and

[ Team LiB ]

Customizing Your Menus and Toolbars

Outlook now has two methods you can use to customize toolbars to show the buttons and menus you use the most and to remove the ones you don't use If you've customized toolbars in older versions of Office, you're familiar with the first method in which you drag menus and buttons around with the mouse Choose Tools, Customize to open the Customize dialog to create customized toolbars (see Figure 16.2) Select the Toolbars tab

to make a new toolbar, Commands to add new buttons and menus to your toolbars, or Options to configure display options such as personalized menus and icon sizes

Figure 16.2 Use the Customize dialog to create customized toolbars

While the Customize dialog is open, you're in Edit mode and the

normal actions of the buttons and menus are disabled

The second method of customizing toolbars is the Rearrange Commands button found by choosing the Customize, Commands menu selection The Rearrange Commands option is new to Office 2003 and gives users the opportunity to use an interface to add, delete, or move commands Rearrange Commands keeps the menu in view until you're finished

editing it, which is especially helpful when you're editing submenus

Get in the habit of creating new toolbars for your customizations rather

than adding custom buttons or menus to the default toolbars It's too

easy to reset the default toolbars before realizing you have custom tools

on them

Using Rearrange Commands Option

Rearrange Commands is a new way to customize tools in Office 2003 Open the

Customize dialog using Tools, Customize and look for the Rearrange Commands button

on the Commands tab You'll see a dialog like the one shown in Figure 16.3

Figure 16.3 Rearrange Commands provides a simple interface for customizing

command bars

Using the Rearrange Commands menu, do the following:

1 Choose the menu or toolbar you want to rearrange by selecting the Menu Bar or Toolbar radio button

2 Choose the menu or toolbar from the drop-down list The entries are listed in the

order they appear on the menu bar and toolbars, from left to right, and include

submenus

3 Add a new command by selecting a command and choosing Add to create the new command above the selection

4 Select a command and choose Delete to remove it from the menu

5 Use Move Up or Move Down to change positions on the command bars

6 Choose the Modify Selection menu, and then select Begin a Group to add

separators between the tools to group commands The separator is added above the selected command, and you can use the Move Up and Move Down buttons to

move separators into new positions

Table 16.1 lists all the options available when you use Rearrange Commands

Table 16.1 Rearrange Commands Options Button Action

Add Opens the Add Command dialog; use it to add additional tools

Delete Deletes the selected command

Move Up Moves the selected command up one position

Move Down Moves the selected command down one position

Modify Selection Opens a dialog so that you can change how the button or menu looks

Reset Removes all customizations made to the selected menu or toolbar

The Reset button in the Rearrange Commands dialog restores the command bar shown in the window to its default settings, removing all of your customizations, including any

changes made to submenus

Changing the Toolbar Appearance

When you select a menu and see just a few commands on the menu along with a round

button at the bottom, as shown in Figure 16.4, personalized menus are enabled If the

menu doesn't expand after a few seconds, click on the button to expand the menu If you

don't like personalized menus, you can disable the option on the Options tab of the

Customize dialog

Figure 16.4 Personalized menus show the most frequently used commands when

you first open the menu When the menu remains selected for more than a few

seconds, the menu expands and you can see all the commands on it

It's often easier to learn where to look for commands if you disable

personalized menus until you're familiar with the menus

Personalized menu usage data is stored in C:\Documents and Settings\username\

Application Data\Microsoft\Office\MSOUTLO.PIP Each Office program has a *.pip file

in this directory that contains the usage data for its toolbars You can reset the data for the Outlook toolbar by choosing the Reset Menu and Toolbar Usage Data button on the Options tab

If this is your first time using Outlook, other settings on the Options tab that you might find helpful are Show ScreenTips on Toolbars and Show Shortcuts in ScreenTips Both

of these options help you learn the keyboard shortcuts Outlook uses by displaying them

in a small balloon when you hover over a button

Changes made in the Options tab of the Customize dialog affect all

Office programs, not just Outlook

Outlook's toolbars dock at the top of the window by default, but they can be placed

anywhere on the screen (see Figure 16.5) You can dock them on the sides of Outlook's window or float them on the screen When a toolbar is floating, you can drag any edge in

or out to adjust the height and width of the toolbar, from horizontal to vertical

Figure 16.5 Dock toolbars on any edge of the Outlook windows or float toolbars

inside or outside the window

Move a toolbar by hovering the mouse over the resize handles on the left, holding down the left mouse button, and dragging the toolbar When you drag a toolbar close to the window edge, it changes shape and docks on the window edge When toolbars are docked

on the left or right window edges, the icons rotate so that they're always in the correct position; text labels on the buttons remain vertical

Vertically docked toolbars are helpful to anyone who uses a

high-resolution monitor setting and has a lot of white space on the right side

of the window Moving the toolbars to the side frees up enough space

at the top of the screen to show more lines of text on the screen

Two or more toolbars can share a row to save screen space When you place multiple toolbars on one row, you'll have some tools that won't fit on the screen Look under the Toolbar Options button at the end of the toolbar for the buttons that are hidden When you choose a hidden button, the button shows and a less-used tool moves to the overflow area This is part of the personalized menu feature which hides less used menu items but remains enabled if the personalization settings in Tools, Customize, Options are disabled

Although you can't close the menu bar, you can dock it on any

window edge or float it on the screen When the menu bar is placed

at the top or bottom of the window, it cannot share the row with

toolbars But when the menu bar is docked vertically, it can share a

row with toolbars

Using the Modify Selection Menu

Use the Modify Selection menu to customize individual buttons or menus After opening the Customize dialog from the Tools menu, right-click on any button on the toolbar or menu to show the Modify Selection menu for that command If you use the Rearrange Commands dialog to edit your menus, select the command and click Modify Selection to show the Modify Selection menu for that command Finally, selecting any button enables the Modify Selection button in the Customize dialog, which you can use to modify the command Table 16.2 is a list of the Modify Selection options

Table 16.2 Modify Selection Options Command Action

Reset Resets the button to its default appearance

Delete Deletes the selected command

Name Names the button Insert an ampersand (&) in front of the letter you

want to use for keyboard shortcut, and then press Alt+ the shortcut key

to activate the command

Copy Button

Image

Copies the selected button image

Paste Button

Image

Pastes an image to the selected button

Reset Button

Image

Restores a button image to the default image

Edit Button

Image

Opens the button editor so that you can create your own image

Change Button

Image

Enables you to select from a limited selection of included images

Default Style Uses the default style for the button: text only, image only, or text and

image The commands are shown in their default styles on the Commands tab

Text Only

(Always)

Always uses text only

Text Only (in Uses text only when the button is in a menu For example, the Tools

Menus) menu has some commands that include images and others that are text

only

Image and

Text

Uses both images and text for the button The Reply and Forward buttons use both image and text on both menus and toolbars

Begin a Group Adds a separator above the command if on a menu, or to the left if on a

toolbar

Assign

Hyperlink

Adds a hyperlink to change the action of the command

Among the commands listed here, Assign Hyperlink is a powerful, yet underused feature

in Outlook You can use it to create buttons to open and run almost any program or file, from Windows utilities such as Notepad or Calculator to Word documents or Access databases, open Web sites, and create preaddressed email messages

For example, you can enter calc in the Hyperlink field so that when you click the

assigned button, Windows Calculator runs (Some programs might need the full

pathname, but many Windows utilities need only the filename.) You can use a Web address, mailto URL, or network path as a hyperlink

When you want to create a custom toolbar button, pick any toolbar

button from the Commands dialog because Outlook doesn't include

blank toolbar buttons Add a hyperlink to it and then edit its name and

image The hyperlink you use displays as the ScreenTip

Don't choose a menu button, which has a small triangle at the right side

Use toolbar buttons only

Task: Create a Custom Command Button

Customizing toolbar buttons enables you to open almost any file or folder and requires no VBA code One example of the usefulness of this is for users who upgrade from older versions and use the Outlook Bar for shortcuts to frequently used files and folders

This example shows you how to make a shortcut to an Outlook folder, but keep in mind that you can create a shortcut to any folder or file in the Windows file system:

1 Select the folder you want to use a button to open

2 Show the Web toolbar (right-click the toolbar area and select Web) and copy the folder path from the Address bar, which will look like this: outlook:Inbox\

OutlookTips\Sent Tips (see Figure 16.6)

Figure 16.6 Copy the folder path from the Web tool's Address bar

3 Open the Customize dialog (click Tools, Customize)

4 From the Toolbar tab, click the New button to create a new toolbar

5 Choose any button from the Commands tab and drag it to the toolbar

6 Right-click on the button you just added and choose Assign Hyperlink The

Assign Hyperlink dialog opens (see Figure 16.7), and you can select from files or enter your own URL

Figure 16.7 Use the Assign Hyperlink button to create toolbar buttons for

your files

7 Paste the folder path in the URL field or browse for the folder and close all open dialogs

8 When you click the button, a new Outlook window opens with the folder in view

To use a Windows folder or file instead of an Outlook folder, enter the file path to the folder and filename in step 7 You can browse the Assign Hyperlink dialog for the file or folder or copy the folder path from the Address bar in Windows Explorer If the Address bar isn't showing, right-click on the Windows Explorer toolbar and select Address Bar

When you assign shortcuts to buttons and menus, you should try to

use a key that isn't already in use or that isn't visible on the screen

When a shortcut is assigned to two different buttons or menus, the

first Alt+ keystroke selects the first button that matches the

keystroke When you use the keystrokes a second time, it cycles to

the next instance After it has cycled to the command you want to

use, you need to press Enter to activate the button

Adding and Deleting Tools

To customize your command bars, open the Customize dialog by choosing the Tools, Customize menu selection When you select a button or menu item, an outline appears around the edge of the button Clicking the right mouse button grabs the command so that you can move it You can then drag it to the position where you'd like it to appear and release the mouse button

If the commands you use the most are missing from the toolbars, you can add them to the existing toolbars or create new toolbars for them If the toolbars have commands you don't use, you can remove them To add additional commands to a toolbar:

1 Open the Customize dialog and select the Commands tab

2 Locate the command you need by first browsing the Categories list and then the Commands list

3 Drag the command to the toolbar or menu where you want it positioned and drop

it

To delete commands from a toolbar:

1 Open the Customize dialog and select the Commands tab

2 Select the command you want to remove and drag it away from the toolbar

3 Release the mouse button when the cursor displays a small x, which indicates you want to delete the command from the command bar

You can move and remove buttons from command bars without

opening the Customize dialog by holding Alt and left-clicking a button

The cursor image changes, and you can drag the button to a new

position or drag it off the command bar to delete it

Adding and Removing Separators

Many menus and toolbars have small bars called separators between the buttons (refer to Figure 16.1), giving you the ability to organize the buttons into groups You can create separators using the Begin a Group command found on the Modify Selection menu of a button or just by dragging a command button

Create separators between two buttons by dragging the rightmost of the two buttons slightly farther from the button to its left You can remove separators by dragging the rightmost button closer to the button on the left Create menu separators by sliding a menu item down and remove separators by sliding a menu item up

Changing How Tools Display

As mentioned earlier, each command has a default display setting The Commands tab of the Customize dialog displays commands using the default settings You can change any button or menu to use any of these settings:

• Text only

• Text only when used on a menu

• Text and image

• Image only

After opening the Customize dialog, right-click on the button you want to change and choose the command from the Modify Selection menu (see Figure 16.8) The change is applied immediately so that you can see how it looks

Figure 16.8 Change the display of the button using the Modify Selection dialog

If you're having trouble remembering what some toolbar buttons do,

change the buttons from image only to text and image until you're

familiar with them You can also enable ScreenTips in Tools,

Customize, Options to help you learn the button images

Along with changing how the button name and image are displayed, you can also change the name and the keyboard shortcut used to activate the button However, it's not a good idea to change the name or shortcut for the default commands Doing so leads to

confusion if someone else uses your computer or if you tell someone to look for a

command by name and you forget that you changed the name

To change a name or keyboard shortcut, open the Customize dialog and right-click on the button Enter a new name in the Name field and place an ampersand (&) in front of the character you want to use as the shortcut For example, the hot key for Forward is w, which is entered in the Name field as For&ward

To activate the command, press Alt+ the character that follows the ampersand If the shortcut already exists, pressing Alt+ the character will move you from the first instance

to each additional instance, starting at the top of the window When you use the same shortcut more than once, you must press Enter to activate the highlighted command

If you don't like an image, you can either edit it or paste an image from another tool or program All the Office programs have the same Customize dialog and editing options You can copy a button image from Word or Excel and paste it on a button in Outlook You can also copy any 32x32 pixel bitmap and paste it as a button image

To copy a button image from Word to use in Outlook:

1 Open Word's Tools, Customize dialog

2 Right-click on the button whose image you want to use in Outlook

3 Select Copy Button Image from the Modify Selection menu

4 Close the Customize dialog in Word

5 Open Outlook's Tools, Customize dialog

6 Select the command you want to paste the image on

7 Right-click on the button and choose Paste Button Image from the Modify

Selection menu

Outlook's button now uses the button image copied from Word

When copying an image, open the image in your favorite image editor Select a 32x32 area of the image to copy Then paste it into Outlook beginning with step 5 in the

preceding list