Free Excel 2011 Toolbar

A free toolbar for Microsoft Excel 2011

by Jim Gordon, Microsoft Macintosh MVP and co-author of
Office 2011 for Mac All-in-One For Dummies

So Easy!

Just download an Excel workbook. Open the workbook and your toolbar appears. That's all there is to do!
This is safe. There are no macros.

Screen shot of the toolbar

What's on the toolbar?

Heavily used commands

Paste formatting, paste values, toggle grid lines, lock/unlock cells, protrect/unprotect worksheet, format selection, trace formula precedents, trace formula dependencies, clear trace lines

Hard to find commands

Select visible cells, select current region, flag for follow-up, camera command, edit query in Microsoft Query, create name from selection (from the Excel for Windows Name Manager)

Form controls for worksheets

Group box, button control, radio (aka option) button, check box, scroll bar, combo box, spinner, list box

Form controls for dialog sheets

Insert dialog sheet, set tab order, run the dialog, combo list-edit box, combo drop-down edit box, dialog sheet text input field, design mode toggle, label, design mode, properties of selected control, view VBA code (click this button then click on an object such as a form control)

VBA shortcuts

View macros, record/stop recording vba macro button, shortcut to the visual basic editor

Learn more!
Buy this book.

Before downloading...

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Download instructions

  1. Click here to download MacMVP2011toolbar.zip
    • Choose your browser's "Save" option and notice the save location.
    • Double-click the downloaded zip file to unzip it. MacMVP2011toolbar.xlsb will display
  2. Open MacMVP2011toolbar.xlsb
    • MacMVP2011toolbar.xlsb a regular Excel workbook. Double-click the file iname in Findeor, or use File > Open in Excel
    • As soon as you open the file, the toolbar appears

Windows computers
The toolbar appears to work in Excel for Windows, too, but no promises.

More about the tools and the toolbar

The toolbar contains commands that are already built into Excel, but all of them are not easily found in the interface. The toolbar displays instantly because it is attached to the workbook. The controls are context sensitive, so they are only available to you when they can be used. For example, dialog sheet controls will be grayed out unless a dialog sheet is the active sheet.

To attach a toolbar to a workbook: You can attach any custom toolbar to a workbook by choosing from the View menu > Toolbars > Customize Menus and Toolbars. In the resulting dialog (after you make a custom toolbar) click the Attach button and then copy the toolbar to your open workbook. No macros are involved, so there's no worry about viruses.

Adding and removing commands: The Excel MVP 2011 toolbar is a custom toolbar, which you can customize further by dragging commands to it and from it,  as well as dragging its commands to and from other toolbars and menus whenever the Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog is visible, which you display by choosing View > Toolbars > Customize Menus and Toolbars. You'll find Excel's commands on the Commands tab of the dialog, and in the built-in menus and toolbars. If you move a command from a built-in menu or toolbar, you can use the Reset button in the Customize Menus and Toolbars dialog to restore the default commands.

If you want to delete the toolbar, use the View menu. Choose Toolbars > Customize Menus and Toolbars. In the resulting dialog, select the toolbar called 2011mvpToolbar and then click the delete button.

To use the Camera command, select a cell range and then click the camera button on the toolbar.  Click in a different place, preferably a distance away from the selected cell range or even on a different worksheet. The result is a picture of the cell range you selected and the picture is linked to the range. Any changes that occur on the range are instantly updated in the picture. The picture can be scaled like any other picture by dragging its corners. Any objects that are completely within the cell range you selected are also included in the picture.

What's a dialog sheet? Excel has three kinds of sheets: worksheet, chart sheet, and dialog sheet. Dialog sheets are primarily used for making input forms, and also to make dialog boxes. For more information about using form controls download a file called WE1162 from Microsoft. It is in .exe format, but you can open it using free Stuffit Expander. Inside is a Word document with code samples and explanations. The controls that work only on dialog sheets are grouped together on MVP toolbar.

How do I make a form control? Click one of the form control buttons on the toolbar, and then drag on your worksheet or on a dialog sheet. When you let go of the mouse, your form appears. Right-click on a form and choose the Format option to control properties of your form control.

What is Design mode for? When in design mode you can double-click a form control to see and edit its code rather than executing the button.

What is the Run button for? When you make a dialog sheet you're in an editing mode. You activate the sheet so the form controls work by running the sheet.  Normally you would use VBA to run the form when it's all done, but when designing your form you use the Run button to activate the dialog sheet so you can test your form.

Weren't dialog sheets replaced by userforms? That's what a lot of people say, but dialog sheets still here and they still work just fine. Some of the controls that work only on dialog sheets are in the developer tab of the Excel 2011 Ribbon, so they are still supported in the current product. Userforms are also available in Excel 2011 in the Visual Basic Editor.

You can customize this toolbar.

Updated July 4, 2012

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