How to customize menus or toolbars in Act!

Question: How do I customize menus or toolbars in Act!?
 
Product Details: 
Product Family: Act!
Product: Act! Pro, Act! Premium
Version: 2005 and later
 

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Answer:
 
The Act! menus and toolbars can be customized so that the buttons are large or small. Additionally, it is possible to add custom commands to the toolbar, as well as move and/or add a specific item to one or more menu options.
 
 
 
Changing the size of the buttons
 
To change the size of the buttons, click Tools > Customize > then click Show Large Buttons or Show Small Buttons.
 
 
Changing the way menus display
 
To change the way the menus display:
 

1. Click Tools > Customize > Menus and Toolbars…
2. Click the Options Tab
3. Enable or disable the desired options, then click Close

 
 
The following options are available for you to toggle:
 

• Always show full menus: Shows all available options within a menu. Disabling this option will make it so that the menus will be shortened to the most frequently used menu options, but will expand when clicking the down arrows at the end of the menu list.
• Show full menus after a short delay: This option is useful if you have disabled the option to “Always show full menus”. With this option enabled, you can hover over the down arrows at the end of the menu list to expand, rather than being required to click to expand the full menu.
• Reset my usage data: Clicking this will clear out the memory of most frequently used menu items, reverting the menu items that display back to default items
• Show tooltips on menus and toolbars: If enabled shows a small yellow box with a description when hovering over certain menu options, such as the Detail View, List view, or other navigation options
• Show shortcut keys in tooltips: If tooltips are enabled, this option will also display keyboard shortcuts for some menu options, if available

 
 
Creating custom commands
 
Custom commands allow you to create menu options that you can click from directly within Act! to open a specific file or to launch a specific executable file (*.exe file), without having to navigate through your operating system to open. For example, if you wanted to create a custom command so that you could open the Windows calculator from within Act!, or if you wanted to click a single button to launch a specific frequently used Act! query, custom commands are useful. To create a custom command:
 

1. Click Tools > Customize > Menus and Toolbars…
2. Click the Custom Commands tab
3. Click New
4. In the Command name field, enter the name for the command
5. In the Tooltip text field, enter a short description that will appear when hovering over (requires tooltips to be turned on, see previous section)
6. Click Browse…, then browse to the location where the file you wish to launch is stored
   
   Note: If you are not using this custom command to run an executable file (*.exe), click the file type drop-down and select “All files (*.*)
    
7. Select the file, then click Open
8. Click Add Command to finish creating the custom command
9. To add the custom command to a menu or a toolbar, refer to the “Adding existing or custom commands to a toolbar” section of this article

 
 
 
Creating custom Menus
 
Act! has some default menus (such as File, Edit, View, Lookup, etc.), that have default commands built into them, however, you can create a custom menu to store your own custom commands, or even existing default commands. To create a custom Menu:
 

1. Click Tools > Customize > Menus and Toolbars…
2. Click the Custom Commands tab
3. Click New
4. In the Command name field, enter the name for the Menu
5. If desired, enter a short description for the Tooltip text
6. Click Add Command
7. To add the custom menu, refer to the “Adding existing or custom commands to a toolbar” section

 
 
 
Adding existing or custom commands to a Toolbar
 

1. Click Tools > Customize > Menus and Toolbars…
2. Click the Commands tab
3. Select the Category that the command exists in
4. Under Commands, click and drag the necessary command to the desired position over the menu bar, toolbar, or menu you wish to add it to, then drop it there
5. Repeat for any other commands you wish to add, then click Close when complete