Microsoft created all sorts of buttons on the toolbars of Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft PowerPoint — but they missed one that I use almost every time!

I’m talking about the SaveAs button. I often load a Word file, but I want to edit it and save it with a new name. I have to use the File / Save As menu options. There is a Save button on the toolbar, but not a Save As button. This oversight can be easily fixed…

So, how do we do add a Save As button to the Word toolbar? As an example, let’s add a Save As button to Microsoft Word.

Here’s how, step-by-step:

1. Start the Microsoft Word program.
2. Examine the icon toolbar, which should be right below the File / Edit / View menubar. The first six toolbar icons in the default toolbar are: New Document, Open, Save, Permission, Print and Print Preview.
3. Right-click on any of the icons. It doesn’t matter which. Notice that you get a nice long list of possible toolbars — and "Customize…" is at the bottom of the list
   

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4. Left-Click on "Customize…"
5. On the resulting Customize dialog box, click on the Commands tab
   
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   There are two columns — Categories and Commands. Categories correspond to the items on the main menu bar (File, Edit, View, etc) plus a few more. Commands correspond to the items that show on those main menu bar pull-down menus (plus a few more).

6. Let’s scroll the Command section downward so that it shows “Save As…” as one of the options.
   
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7. This is the cool part — the tricky part — the part that isn’t obvious. When you have this dialog box open, you can drag any of those commands up to Word’s toolbar and drop them wherever you want them to be.

   Left-click on the “Save As…” entry and drag it up onto the toolbar, just to the right of the regular Save icon. Notice that, when you hover the Save As over the toolbar, you will see the “insertion cursor” that shows you where Windows will place the icon if you let go.
   
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8. We’re almost done. But, the toolbar has the words "Save As…", while I’d rather have an icon — especially an icon that has been used for years to mean "Save As". Fortunately, that’s easy, too…

   Right-click on the "Save As…" text button to get a new context menu. (Notice that the Customize dialog box is still open. It has to be open for us to be able to change the toolbars.).

9. Either left-click on "Change Button Image" or just hover over it — either way, the fly-out menu on the right shows up with 49 different pre-designed images. We want the picture of the diskette with an arrow pointing inward. This icon has been around for a long time, and has meant “save as.” Left-Click on the icon of the diskette with the arrow pointing inward.
   
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10. Now, that toolbar button has both the icon and the "Save As…" wording. Right-click on the toolbar button, and you will see a checkmark beside "Image and Text". Left click on the entry above it that says "Default Style"

11. Now, the Save As icon is on the toolbar, and the text is off the toolbar. Click the Close button on the Customize dialog box, and you’re finished!

While you’ve got the Customize dialog box, you can do a lot of things on the toolbar. If you put a button on the toolbar and decide you don’t want it there, just left-click on that button and drag it off the toolbar. If you want to move the buttons to a different order, just left-click on one and drag it to a different position on the toolbar.

This same technique works in Excel and PowerPoint, too. You will have to do it in each of the programs, though. Doing it in Word will not set up the buttons in Excel and PowerPoint, since they each have their own toolbars and their own options.