Copying the Quick Access Toolbar

Alan makes extensive use of the Quick Access Toolbar, tweaking it constantly. He just bought a new laptop and would love to transfer the QAT from his other computer to the laptop.

Transferring your Quick Access Toolbar from one system to another is relatively easy, but it depends on the version of Word you are using. If you are using Word 2007 on both systems, you can transfer the toolbar by doing a search for the file "Word.QAT". This file contains your modifications to the toolbar. The default location for the file should be here:

C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Microsoft\Office\

Simply copy the file from one computer to the other, restart Word on the destination computer, and you should be good to go.

If you are using Word 2010 or a later version, then the QAT file no longer exists. Instead, Word uses a file called Word.OfficeUI. You can find the file in the same directories where the QAT file was stored in Word 2007. Again, just copy the file from one system to another that uses the same version of Word (for instance: from one Word 2019 system to another) and you should be OK.

You should note that the Word.OfficeUI file contains more than just the Quick Access Toolbar configuration changes. It also contains information about your changes to the Word ribbons. So, if you copy the file from one system to another, then the target system will have the same QAT and ribbon customizations as the source system.

Word 2010 and later versions do provide a more flexible way to transfer the Quick Access Toolbar. Follow these steps:

1. Display the File tab of the ribbon and then click Options. Word displays the Word Options dialog box.
2. At the left side of the dialog box click either Customize Ribbon or Quick Access Toolbar. (It really doesn't matter which one you click.) (See Figure 1.)



Figure 1. The Quick Access Toolbar options of the Word Options dialog box.

3. At the bottom-right of the dialog box click the Import/Export drop-down list. Word displays a couple of options.
4. Choose Export All Customizations. Word displays the File Save dialog box.
5. Use the controls in the dialog box to select where you want to save your customizations and what name you want to use for the file.
6. Click Save. Word saves your customization file.

When it comes time to use the exported information on a new system, just repeat the same steps but use Import Customization File in step 4.

All of the steps provided so far assume that you are transferring the Quick Access Toolbar between systems that use the same version of Word. This breaks down a bit if you are trying to transfer to or from Word 2007 and Word 2010 or a later version of Word. If you are transferring from a Word 2007 system to one that uses a later version of Word, then you can try copying Word.QAT from the Word 2007 to the later system. You should rename the file to Word.OfficeUI and restart Word. You can also use the Import capabilities of Word 2010 or a later version to import the QAT information.

If you need to copy a customized Quick Access Toolbar from Word 2010 or a later version back to Word 2007, then you can try to use the Export capabilities to export your customizations. The file that is created by exporting can be renamed to Word.QAT and copied to the Word 2007 system. Restart Word and you should notice the new Quick Access Toolbar. (The Word 2007 system should ignore any toolbar changes in the customization file.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (9920) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Word in Microsoft 365, and 2021.