Mini Toolbar in Excel

The Mini Toolbar is a floating toolbar that appears above the shortcut menu when you right-click a cell or other objects like a shape or chart. It is a small version of the full toolbar that displays commonly used formatting commands like Bold, Italics, Font Size and Font Color. The mini toolbar was introduced as a quick-access version so the Excel users can easily access the Font group, border, and few extra buttons on the Home tab.

The Mini Toolbar is also available in other office applications such as Word and PowerPoint. When you select any text or right-click on it, a faded, partially transparent pop window emerges on the top of your selected text. If you hover your mouse pointer over it, it immediately converts to its solid and usable form. Sometimes the Excel users may find it annoying as it keeps getting in the way. In that case, they can turn it off (we will learn the steps to turn off Mini Toolbar later in this tutorial).

FACT: Do you know that the Mini Toolbar feature is only available in the 2007 and 2010 versions of Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Outlook. The user can even turn off this feature if it is not required. However, the toolbar commands are pre-defined and cannot be customized to include different other functions.

Mini Toolbar Mouse Pointer Rules:

• If you bring your mouse pointer towards the Mini Toolbar, it freezes and immediately becomes active.
• If you take your mouse pointer away from the Mini Toolbar, it disappears.
• You will notice that the Mini Toolbar disappears if you press any key from your keyboard or scroll the wheel of your mouse.

Mini Toolbar Features:

The mini toolbar contains the most commonly used tools of the Home Tab. The list of the tools are as follows:

1. Font Type(Drop-Down) - The Font feature shows the list of fonts available in Excel. The user can quickly select or change the font of the cell as per their choices.

2. Font Size(Drop-Down). With the help of Font Size, you can quickly adjust the size of the text.

3. Increase Font Size- This feature allows Excel users to quickly increase the font size of the selected cell to the next larger font size.

4. Decrease Font Size- This feature allows the Excel users to quickly decrease the font size of the selected cell to the previous smaller font size.

5. Percent Style- With the help of the Percent Style feature, you can incorporate the percent number format into the selected cells.

NOTE: The shortcut key to perform percent style in Excel is Ctrl + Shift + %.

6. Comma Style- With the help of the Percent Style feature, you can incorporate the comma style number format into the selected cells.

7. Accounting Number Format(Drop-Down)- The Accounting Number feature incorporates the 'default' number format to the selected cells. The drop-down consists of the following commands:

• English (UK)
• English (US)
• Euro
• and More Accounting Formats.

8. Merge & Center(Drop-Down). The Merger & Centre feature concatenates the selected cells and puts the contents in a new cell in the centre position. The drop-down consists of the following commands:

• Merge & Center
• Merge Across
• Merge Cells and Unmerge Cells

The Merge Across is similar to the Merge and Center feature with a single difference that merges and centres the selected cells in the same row with no change in the alignment.

9. Bold- This feature toggles bold on the selected cell.

NOTE: The shortcut key to apply Bold in Excel is Ctrl + B.

10. Italic- This feature toggles italics on the selected cell.

NOTE: The shortcut key to apply Bold in Excel is Ctrl + I.

11. Center- This feature aligns the content of the selected cell in the center position.

12. Fill Color(Drop-Down)- The Fill Color feature is useful whenever the user want to quickly apply a color to the background of the selected cell. The drop-down consists of the following commands:

• Theme Colors
• Standard Colors
• No Fill and More Colors.

13. Font Color (Drop-Down). As the name suggests, the Font colour features allow the Excel user to quickly change the colour of the font of the selected cell. The Font Color drop-down incorporates the below give commands:

• Automatic
• Theme Colors
• Standard Colors and More Colors.

14. Borders(Drop-Down). The Borders enables the users to quickly apply a border of any length and thickness to the selected cells. The Borders drop-down incorporates the below give commands:

• Bottom
• Top
• Left
• Right
• No
• All
• Outside
• Thick Box
• Top and Bottom
• Draw Border
• Thick Bottom
• Top and Thick Bottom
• Erase Border
• Bottom Double
• Top and Double Bottom
• Draw Border Grid
• Line Color
• Line Style and More Borders.

15. Increase Decimal- As the name suggest, this features adds one decimal place from the selected cells.

16. Decrease Decimal- As the name suggests, Increase Decimal adds one decimal place from the selected cells.

17. Format Painter- This feature copies the formatting from any cell (or group of cells or range) enabling the user to paste the same formatting elsewhere.

Removing the Mini Toolbar

Many times, while working on excel, the Mini Toolbar pops up very often, and therefore many users may find it annoying as it keeps getting in the way. Thus, Excel provides the option to switch off Mini Toolbar. Following are the steps to turn off the Mini Toolbar from Excel:

1. In your Excel application, click on File > Options > General.
2. You will see the check box in front of the Show Mini Toolbar. Clear the selection. (Refer to the below screenshot)
   
3. Click OK.