The Mini Toolbar

Starting Excel 2007 for Windows, there is a cute mini tool bar introduced to quickly format your selection. You can see this tool bar by right clicking on any cell(s), shape or chart etc. It appears as below in my system when I right click on a cell.

Did you see on the top of right click menu? That’s the one I am talking about. If my Home tab is not displayed (where all formatting options are available  and I urgently want to apply quick formatting, mini tool bar is my friend.

Points to note:

1. Contents of this menu depend on the object you right clicked. So, you will see a different menu if you click on a range and a different one if you click on chart etc.
2. You cannot customize this menu based on your needs.
3. Applies to Excel 2007 and later versions only (Not available in Mac 2008 & 2011)!

Though this is great to apply quick format, many users feel it annoying (I am not one of them). For those, you can turn this feature off. Let’s see how.

Excel 2007:

Click the Microsoft Office button > Excel Options > Popular tab > Top options for working with Excel segment > clear the Show Mini Toolbar on selection check box.

Excel 2010 and later:

File tab > Options > General > User Interface options segment > clear the Show Mini Toolbar on selection check box.