Microsoft Office Development and Consultancy

Excel

What is the Mini Toolbar ?

The mini toolbar is a context toolbar that is often displayed when you use the right mouse button.

It provides access to some of the most common formatting commands and is displayed above the shortcut drop-down menu.

An example of a mini toolbar can been seen by selecting any cell and clicking the right mouse button.

If you move your mouse towards the Mini Toolbar it solidifies and becomes active.

If you move your mouse away from the Mini Toolbar then it disappears.

If you use the scroll wheel or press any key then the toolbar automatically disappears.

When is the Mini Toolbar Displayed ?

A mini toolbar is displayed in addition to any of the following shortcut menus

Cell shortcut menu

Text shortcut menu

Row shortcut menu

Column shortcut menu

Font - Drop-Down.

Font Size - Drop-Down.

Increase Font Size -

Decrease Font Size -

Accounting Number Format - Button with Drop Down

Percent Style - (Ctrl + Shift + %).

Comma Style -

Merge & Center -

Bold - (Ctrl + B)

Italic - (Ctrl + I)

Center -

Fill Color - Button with Drop-Down.

Font Color - Button with Drop-Down.

Borders - Button with Drop-Down.

Increase Decimal -

Decrease Decimal -

Format Painter -

All of these commands can be found on the Home tab

Removing the Mini Toolbar

If you feel that the Mini Toolbar just keeps getting in the way you can switch it off

(File > Options)(General tab, "Show mini toolbar on selection")

In Excel 2007 this opton (Office > Excel Options)(Popular tab, "Show mini toolbar on selection")

If that doesn't work you can always resort to changing the registry key

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\12.0\Common\Toolbars\Excel

The entry may not have been created if you have not changed the option using the interface first though.

Things to Remember