Adding Buttons to Toolbars (Word 2002)

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I have been trying to add buttons to toolbars. I try to drag the button from the “customize” menu, but instead of having a “+” with the button, there is an “x” and the button does not add. I cannot find any help to explain this problem.

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When you drag the buttom, are you dragging ONTO a toolbar? Note that if your mouse is just a little too far to the right of the last button on the toolbar, you’ll see the X because Word thinks you’re positioning the button off the toolbar. Move the mouse a little more to the left and the X should turn into an I-beam with a + sign. At that point, you can let go of the mouse button and your item will be positioned where the I-beam was. Just to see the effect, try moving the button you’re trying to add to the middle of the toolbar – it almost sounds like you’re adding it to the right end, where positioning becomes critical. If this doesn’t help, then it sounds like you have a deeper problem that goes beyond me.

HTH.

Fred

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When I have this problem (Word97), I find either trying to place the button on a different toolbar or placing it almost atop an existing button works. When you drop the button, it will go into its own place.

Good luck.

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Also note that it is a beginner’s mistake to customize the built-in toolbars directly. The thing is that you can’t copy or move customizations to built-in toolbars. A better method is to either completely replace built-in menus or toolbars with your own custom toolbars or to construct custom “shadow” toolbars. You create your customizations on the shadow toolbars and then copy them from your shadow toolbars to the built-in ones. Your custom toolbars can be copied to other templates or documents.

See Sharing Customizations for instructions and information on sharing / copying / moving customizations including macros, AutoText, Toolbars and menus, and key assignments.

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