How to Customize the Quick Access Toolbar and Status Bar in Excel
Don’t you love it when you learn something new in Microsoft Excel? Then you realize it has been there all this time, but you just never knew how useful it could be for you. When I worked as a Benefits Manager, I learned two of the simplest features on both the Quick Access Toolbar and the Status Bar that I never really noticed, but once I realized they were there, I can’t believe I never used them.
Using Excel efficiently is all about knowing what it can do for you and where you can use the hidden gem shortcuts and features that will optimize your workflow. Why bother clicking in a cell to enter the sum or average formulas when all you have to do is highlight the column and BAM!…check your status bar to see the Sum, Average, Count, etc. all right there?
See how to customize your quick access toolbar and status bar in Excel.
Excel Status Bar Customization
The 1st feature you can enable is on the Status Bar of Excel, which is the thin grey area at the very bottom of the application. Below is a snapshot of my spreadsheet where I have highlighted the first column, Employee ID number.
Then 1) hover your mouse over the Status Bar area at the bottom and “right-click.” A pop-up will appear allowing you to “Customize Status Bar.” From there you can check anything you want to see. I recommend selecting 2) Average, 3) Count and 4) Sum be checked off to appear.
And Viola! Now, if a column is highlighted and contains numerical data, the Average, Sum and Count will magically appear in the status bar. Keep in mind, however that the Count is a count of cells that contain data (whether numerical or not) so you have to “subtract one” if you want a true count of how many employees are listed on your report.
Once I realized this was a feature on the status bar, it cut down on the amount of time I used to spend doing monthly benefit billing. Because we had several self-bill arrangements, I would have to fill in data from my spreadsheets on to the invoice templates. With these status bar features enabled, I could easily filter by benefit plan options for different groups, highlight the column of filtered data and BAM! (again;-)… see the sum total I needed to record on the invoice.
Excel Quick Access Toolbar Customization
The 2nd feature I found super useful was on the Quick Access Toolbar which is at the very top of the application. 1) Click the drop-down arrow to expand the menu. 2) Select “More Commands.”
The Excel Option window opens. 1) click the drop down under “Choose commands from” and 2) select “All Commands” so the entire list is visible.
Scroll down until you see 1) Document Location and then 2) click Add and then 3) click OK.
This inserts the Document Location window in your Quick Access Toolbar.
Why is Document Location so helpful? Because it is the actual file path, including the document file name where this document is saved. Again, why so helpful? Because you can copy and paste this file path into an e-mail to let your team know where to access the document on your shared drive. This is beneficial especially when the file is saved way down into several sub-folders (because then you don’t have to remember all the sub-folders and type it all out). Also it saves you from having to e-mail the spreadsheet insecurely as an attachment.
Also, you can copy and paste the Document Location file path into a Standard Work document so you and other team members can reference back to the file. If you want to learn more about Standard Work, check out my YouTube Channel.
Now that you know how to customize both the Status Bar and Quick Access Toolbar in Excel, you can test out other features. Maybe you’ll discover something that is such a cool time-saver for you. I sure hope so. Check out my video on YouTube to see these step-by-step guidelines in action. Leave me a comment on YouTube and let me know if you have any helpful tips, tricks and short-cuts.
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