Add and Remove Menu Commands in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac

Customizing your PowerPoint Interface is something that lets you place your favorite commands at a position that is easily accessible to you. PowerPoint lets you customize in various ways including adding custom Toolbars and then populating them with commands. In the same way, you can add your own menus, you then populate those menus with your favorite commands. In this tutorial, we will learn how you can add and remove menu commands in PowerPoint 2011 for Mac:

Adding Menu Commands

To add command to your Menu, follow these steps:

1. Launch PowerPoint and select the View | Toolbars | Customize Toolbars and Menu option as shown in Figure 1.
2. 
   Figure 1: Select the Customize Toolbars and Menus option
3. Alternatively, you can right-click (or Ctrl+click) on Standard Toolbar or Formatting Toolbar and select the Customize Toolbars and Menus option from the resultant contextual menu as shown in Figure 2.
4. 
   Figure 2: Customize Toolbars and Menus option within the right-click contextual menu
2. Either option will bring forth two results:
3. i. Bring up an editable Menu Bar, as shown highlighted in red within Figure 3. We'll call this the shadow menu because it replicates the options available in the regular menu that's highlighted in blue within Figure 3.
4. 
   Figure 3: Editable Menu Bar
5. ii. Also, this will summon the Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog box, as shown in Figure 4.
6. 
   Figure 4: Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog box
7. In this dialog box, select the Commands tab as shown highlighted in red within Figure 4, above. Then, scroll down the Categories list, highlighted in blue within Figure 4, above, and select the command category of your choice. This will bring up the commands belonging to the chosen category within the Commands list (highlighted in green within Figure 4, above). Click on the command that you want to add to your Toolbar in Figure 4 above, you can see that the Change Shape command within the Drawing category has been selected.
3. Now, drag this selected command into the Menu in which you want it placed. As soon as you hover over the menu, it opens an empty menu with no commands, as shown in Figure 5.
4. 
   Figure 5: Drag the selected command into the new Menu on the editable Menu Bar
Tip: Notice that we are dragging to a new menu altogether in Figure 5, above, therefore it shows no commands. That does not mean that you cannot drag your commands in to an existing menus, if you choose to do so, you can drag and drop the command in between any existing commands on the menu, or also in sub-menus.
4. Drop the dragged command into the menu as shown highlighted in red within Figure 5. This will add a new command into the Menu. Similarly, drag and drop some more commands into the menu.
Note: After adding commands, you can also reorder them within the menu. To do that, just click and drag the individual command that you want to change the order of, to a new position.
5. Once done, click the OK button within the Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog box. Now, within the actual Menu Bar, click on the menu which you populated with commands, you can see all these commands added, as shown in Figure 6.
6. 
   Figure 6: Menu populated with newly added commands

Removing Menu Commands

To remove a command from your Menu, follow these steps:

1. Access the Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog box and the editable shadow Menu Bar, as explained in Step 1 in the preceding section of this page.
2. Within the shadow Menu Bar, click on the menu from which you want to remove a command. Then, select the command to be deleted, as shown highlighted in red, within Figure 7.
3. 
   Figure 7: Select the menu command to be removed from the Menu within the editable Menu Bar
3. Drag the selected command off the Menu, as shown in Figure 8 (highlighted in red).
4. 
   Figure 8: Drag the command off the Menu
4. Poof! This will remove the selected command from the menu. Similarly, drag off any other unwanted commands from this menu or even PowerPoint's default menus, just be careful that you do not remove commands that you need! Click the OK button within the Customize Toolbars and Menus dialog box. Now, within the Menu Bar, click on the menu from which you just removed commands, you will not see the commands which were deleted, as shown in Figure 9.
5. 
   Figure 9: Some of the commands removed from the Menu