Macros On the Quick Access Toolbar

Valerie is having a problem with getting her macros to stay on the Quick Access Toolbar. She can create a macro and save it to the QAT, but when she closes Word and reopens it, the macro is no long on the toolbar. She wonders how to save the macro to the toolbar and not compromise security settings.

When you modify your Quick Access Toolbar, those changes are stored in one of two places, depending on the version of Word you are using. If you are using Word 2007, they are stored in a file called Word.QAT. If you are using Word 2010, they are stored in a file called Word.OfficeUI. You can use the search capabilities built into Windows to locate these files on your system.

It appears that what is probably happening is that your security settings (meaning, those imposed by your company) results in these files being either erased or regularly overwritten. If you are using Word 2010, you can determine if this is the case by not only adding a macro to the Quick Access Toolbar, but also making some customizations to the ribbon. (These customizations are also stored in Word.OfficeUI. If, when you restart Word, those changes are nowhere to be seen, then you can be fairly sure that the configuration file is being overwritten.

Perhaps the easiest way to deal with this is to make your changes, get out of Word, find the configuration file, and make a copy of that file. You can then—next time you are ready to start Word—check to see if the file has changed. (Just compare the existing version that will be loaded by Word with the copy you made.) If they are different, you can copy your backup into the place of the "official" configuration file and then start Word.

Such a procedure could easily be automated by creating a batch file to do the comparing and copying. If you prefer, you can also talk to your company's network administrators and see if there is anything that can be done to stop the overwriting in the first place.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (11511) applies to Microsoft Word 2007 and 2010.