Customizing Toolbars In Windows XP

Windows Explorer offers three toolbars: Standard Buttons, Address bar, and Links. You can show these toolbars in any combination. To show or hide a toolbar, select View, Toolbars, and then select the toolbar you want (or don’t want) from the submenu.

You can change the size or position of any toolbar by dragging the handle that appears at the left edge of the toolbar, shown here.

To put a toolbar on a new line, drag it downward by its handle. If two toolbars appear on the same line and you want to reverse their order, drag one of them down, and then drag it up on the other side of the second toolbar.

Note that the menu bar can also be repositioned. If you want to see it below the toolbars, simply drag it downward. To eliminate the menu bar altogether (and completely fill the screen with Windows Explorer), press F11. Press F11 again to return Windows Explorer to its previous appearance.

If a toolbar is too wide to be displayed entirely in its current position (and given the current window size), Windows Explorer displays a chevron at the right edge. Click the chevron to display the toolbar items that don’t fit.

In addition to repositioning and resizing the toolbars, you can customize the content of the Standard Buttons toolbar. You can specify which buttons to include, what order they should appear in, how big the icons should be, and whether and how to display text labels for the icons.

To customize the Standard Buttons toolbar, follow these steps:

1. Choose View, Toolbars, Customize. The following dialog box appears.

2. To add a button, select it in the left box and click Add. To remove a button, select it in the right box and click Remove.

3. To change the position of a button, select it in the right box and click Move Up or Move Down. Alternatively, you can drag a button to its desired position.

4. To change the position of or eliminate descriptive text, choose from the Text Options list.

5. To change the size of toolbar icons, choose from the Icon Options list.