Last month I did a post called "Paste Special – One of the Best Tips Ever." I was pleased, but not surprised, that I received several grateful e-mails from those who learned for the first time of this way to copy and paste the words, but not the formatting. But I also received a few e-mails, beginning with one from attorney Michael T. Newman of Ft. Smith, AR, pointing out there’s an even better way to do this- by adding buttons for Paste Special or Paste Unformatted to the toolbars. They are correct. I use it myself, but in a fast-paced tips program, I usually omit that part.

So thank you for the e-mail prompts to tell "the rest of the story."  You can easily add a buttom to your toolbar for any of the functions you now access by using the drop down menus. Customizing your toolbar to add buttons for things you do frequently and remove the buttons that you never use is a great productivity tool. You can learn how to add and remove buttons from the toolbar by using your word processor’s Help Files, but here are the steps as I’ve adapted them from the help files.

To Add a Button to a Toolbar in WordPerfect

1. Click Tools, then select Settings and click Customize.

2. In the Customize settings dialog box, click the Toolbars tab.

3. Choose a toolbar from the Available toolbars list, Click Edit.

4. In the Toolbar editor dialog box, choose a category from the Feature categories list box.

5. Choose a feature from the Features list. (Note: Each Feature Category brings up a different set of Commands here and the various "paste" ones are under Edit.)

6. Locate Paste Special or Paste Unformatted (I used both) and either click Add Button or drag your choice up to the place on the toolbar where you wish it to be located.

To Add a Button (or Command) to a Toolbar in Microsoft Word

1. Make sure the toolbar you want to change is visible. How? On the View menu, point to Toolbars. Click the toolbar you want to display.

2. Click the Toolbar Options arrow . (located on the right end of the toolbar)

3. Point to Add or Remove Buttons, and then click Customize.

4. Click the Commands tab.

5. In the Categories box, click a category for the command you want the button to perform. (Note: Each Category brings up a different set of Commands here and the various "paste" ones are under Edit.)

6. Drag the command or macro you want from the Commands box to the displayed toolbar.

7. On the Customize dialog box, click Close.

Look at your choices. You may want to add several buttons to your toolbars.