Every time I teach a class on Word, I remember why I changed the toolbar. The default installation of Word includes toolbar buttons that I never use. Years ago, I changed them and I’ve never looked back. Every time I upgrade Word, it finds my modified toolbar, so I’ve never had to think about it again.
For example, on my personalized Word toolbar, I have a button called "Word Count." This button comes in handy for articles like this one that need to be a certain length. Instead of choosing the command from the Tools menu, I just click a button. Here’s how I added it to the toolbar. First, you choose Tools|Customize and click the Commands tab. You’ll see a list of Categories. These categories correspond to the Word menus. Since we know that the Word Count command is in the Tools menu, you click the Tools category. Now scroll down until you find the Word Count command.
Now, click and drag the Word Count command to a toolbar. I put it at the end of the Standard toolbar (at the top, closest to the menus). But you can add the button to any toolbar that is visible on your screen. It will show the name of the command, but you can change it to something else if you prefer. If you want to change your button, click the Modify Selection button in the Customize dialog box.
Depending on how you use Word, you may find that you want buttons for commands that don’t appear in the menus. If you don’t see the command you are looking for in a particular category, click All Commands in the Categories box. You’ll see every available Word command.
While you have the Customize dialog box open, you also can easily remove buttons. If adding all those buttons makes your toolbar too crowded, just click and drag the buttons you don’t want off the toolbar. And voila, you have a useful toolbar that only includes the stuff you use and doesn’t include the stuff you don’t use.