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Common Help Topics
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Using Toolbars

Toolbars in Office can be either docked as part of the main window, or floating as a separate window. By default, the visible toolbars and the ones you open with View – Toolbars are docked, and their positions are locked.

Some toolbar icons, for example the Font Colour icon, can open another toolbar. Click the arrow next to the icon to open a toolbar containing further icons.

You now have a choice: either click the icon that you want to activate, or seize the toolbar by its title bar and drag it while holding down the mouse button.

Context of Toolbars

Some toolbars open automatically depending on the context. For example, when you click inside a table in a text document, the Table toolbar opens. When you click inside a numbered paragraph, the Bullets and Numbering toolbar opens.

Toolbars are hidden by default when the Notebook bar is active.

To Close a Toolbar Temporarily

Click the icon in the toolbar's title bar, or choose Close Toolbar from the context menu. The toolbar will be shown automatically again when the context becomes active again.

To Close a Toolbar Permanently

While the toolbar is visible, choose View – Toolbars and click the name of the toolbar to remove the check mark.

To Show a Closed Toolbar

  • Choose View – Toolbars and click the name of the toolbar.
  • Choose View – Toolbars – Reset to reset the toolbars to their default context sensitive behaviour. Now some toolbars will be shown automatically, dependent on the context.

To Unlock a Docked Toolbar

Right-click the toolbar and choose Lock Toolbar Position from the context menu so that it is unchecked. A small vertical handle appears at the start of an unlocked toolbar, which you can use to move the toolbar.

To Lock a Docked Toolbar

You can lock the position of a toolbar by choosing Lock Toolbar Position again from the context menu, so that it is checked.

To Make a Toolbar a Floating Toolbar

Click the toolbar handle and drag the toolbar into the document.

To Reattach a Floating Toolbar

  • Drag the title bar of the toolbar to an edge of the document window.
  • To reattach a floating window, drag-and-drop the window's title bar to an edge of the document window. The mouse pointer should be very close to the document window's edge when you release the mouse button.
  • Depending on your system's window manager settings, you may also double-click an empty place on the toolbar or window, while holding down the Ctrl key. Or double-click the title bar of the floating toolbar or window.

Docking toolbars and windows by drag-and-drop depends on your system's window manager settings. You must enable your system to show the full window contents when you move a window, instead of showing just the outer frame.