Section 2.14. Taskbar Toolbars: All Versions | Windows Vista: The Missing Manual

2.14. Taskbar Toolbars : All Versions

Taskbar toolbars are separate, recessed-looking areas on the taskbar that offer special-function features. You can even build your own toolbarsfor example, one stocked with documents related to a single project. (Somewhere in America, there's a self-help group for people who spend entirely too much time fiddling with this kind of thing.)

To make a toolbar appear or disappear, right-click a blank spot on the taskbar and choose from the Toolbars submenu that appears (Figure 2-26). The ones with checkmarks are the ones you're seeing now; choose one with a checkmark to make the toolbar disappear.

Figure 2-26. Top: Make toolbars appear by right-clicking a blank area on the taskbar, if you can find one .
Bottom: Toolbars eat into your taskbar space, so use them sparingly. If you've added too many icons to the toolbar, a button appears at its right end. Click it to expose a list of the commands or icons that didnt fit .

Here's a rundown of the ready-made taskbar toolbars at your disposal.

2.14.1. Address Toolbar

This toolbar offers a duplicate copy of the Address bar that appears in every Explorer window, complete with a Recent Addresses pop-up menuexcept that it appears in the taskbar at all times. That way, it's always available, even if no Explorer window happens to be open .

2.14.2. Windows Media Player Toolbar

You may be a bit baffled when you choose this one's name from the Toolbars listand nothing happens .

That's because this toolbar only deigns to make itself visible when (a) you're actually running Windows Media Player (Chapter 14), and (b) you've then minimized it. Only then do you see the full glory of the Windows Media Player Toolbar.

2.14.3. Links Toolbar

From its name alone, you might assume that the purpose of this toolbar is to provide links to your favorite Web sites. And sure enough, that's one thing it's good for.

But in fact, you can drag any icon at all onto the toolbarfiles, folders, disks, programs, or whateverto turn them into one-click buttons . In short, think of the Links toolbar as a miniature Start menu for places and things you use most often.

Here are a few possibilities, just to get your juices flowing :

Install toolbar icons of the three or four programs you use the most (or a few documents you work on every day). Sure, the Start menu and the Quick Launch toolbar can also serve this purpose, but only the Links toolbar keeps their names in view.
Install toolbar icons for shared folders on the network. This arrangement saves several steps when you want to connect to them.
Install toolbar icons of Web sites you visit often, so that you can jump directly to them when you sit down in front of your PC each morning. (In Internet Explorer, you can drag the tiny icon at the left end of the Address bar directly onto the Links toolbar to install a Web page there.)

You can drag these links around on the toolbar to put them into a different order, or remove a link by dragging it awaydirectly into the Recycle Bin, if you like. (They're only shortcuts; you're not actually deleting anything important.) To rename something herea good idea, since horizontal space in this location is so preciousright-click it and choose Rename from the shortcut menu.

Tip: Dragging a Web link from the Links toolbar to the desktop or an Explorer window creates an Internet shortcut file . When double-clicked, this special document connects to the Internet and opens the specified Web page.

2.14.4. Tablet PC Input Panel

This toolbar is useful only if you're working on a Tablet PC, which has a touch screen and stylus. It provides quick access to Vista's handwriting-recognition software. Chapter 19 has the details.

2.14.5. Desktop Toolbar

The Desktop toolbar (Figure 2-26, bottom) offers quick access to whichever icons are sitting on your desktopthe Recycle Bin, for example, and whatever else you've put there. As a convenience, it also lists a few frequently-used places that aren't on the desktop, including Internet Explorer and the Control Panel (complete with a pop-up menu that lists the individual Control Panel applets for even faster access).

When it first appears, the Desktop toolbar takes the form of a button at the right end of the taskbar. You can widen the Desktop toolbar if you like, making its buttons appear horizontally on the taskbar, although theres not room for more than a couple of items (unless you hide the text labels, as described below). You might as well just use the pop-up menu; it provides a useful way to get at your desktop stuff when your screen is filled with windows.

2.14.6. Quick Launch Toolbar

The Quick Launch toolbar is fantastically useful. In fact, in sheer convenience, it puts the Start menu to shame. Maybe that's why it's the only toolbar that appears on your taskbar automatically. It contains icons for functions that Microsoft assumes you'll use most often. They include:

Desktop , a one-click way to minimize (hide) all the windows on your screen to make your desktop visible. Don't forget about this button the next time you need to burrow through some folders, put something in the Recycle Bin, or perform some other activity in your desktop folders. Keyboard shortcut: +D.
Switch between windows , a one-click trigger for the Flip 3D effect described on page 90. Keyboard shortcut: +Tab.
Launch Internet Explorer Browser , for one-click access to the Web browser included with Windows.

But what makes this toolbar great is how easy it is to add your own iconsparticularly those you use frequently. There's no faster or easier way to open them, even when your screen is otherwise filled with clutter.

To add an icon to this toolbar, simply drag it there, as shown in Figure 2-27. To remove an icon, just drag it off the toolbardirectly onto the Recycle Bin, if you like. (You're not actually removing any software from your computer.) If you think you'll somehow survive without using Internet Explorer each day, for example, remove it from the Quick Launch toolbar.

Figure 2-27. You can add any kind of icon to the Quick Launch toolbar by dragging it there (top); a vertical bar shows you where it'll appear .

2.14.7. Language Toolbar

Windows has long been able to run software in multiple languagesif you installed the correct fonts, keyboard layouts, and localized software (a French copy of Windows, a French version of Outlook, and so on). In fact, you can even shift from language to language (or keyboard layout to keyboard layout) on the fly, without reinstalling the operating system or even restarting the computer.

POWER USERS' CLINIC
Installing Languages and Keyboard Layouts

Windows can display many different languages, but typing in those languages is another matter. The symbols you use when you're typing Swedish aren't the same as when you're typing English. Microsoft solved this problem by creating different keyboard layouts , one for each language. Each rearranges the letters that appear when you press the keys. For example, when you use the Swedish layout and press the semicolon key, you don't get a semicolon (;)you get an .

Microsoft even includes a Dvorak layouta scientific rearrangement of the standard layout that puts the most common letters directly under your fingertips on the home row. Fans of the Dvorak layout claim greater accuracy, better speed, and less fatigue.

To install a new keyboard layout, choose Start Control Panel. Under "Clock, Language, and Region," click "Change keyboards or other input methods ." In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, click "Change keyboards." In the next dialog box, click Add. You see an astonishingly long list of keyboard layouts: Afrikaans, Albanian, Alsatian, Amharic, and on and on. Expand the + buttons until you see the layout you want; click the layout name; and click OK.

To install a new language (for dialog boxes, help screens, and so on), you first have to download the appropriate language kit . They're available from Microsoft's Web site, and available in two varieties: half-hearted and complete. (The complete ones are available only for the Enterprise and Ultimate editions of Vista.) For details, search Windows Help for "language files."

Once you've installed the language kit, choose Start Control Panel. Under "Clock, Language, and Region," click "Change display language." In the Regional and Language Options dialog box, click "Install/uninstall languages; authenticate yourself (page 191). In the next dialog box, click "Install languages"; navigate to the downloaded language kit.

Once either kind of installation is complete, you can switch from layout to layout, or language to language, using the Language baror, if you're in no hurry, using the same Regional and Language Options dialog box you encountered in these steps.

Chances are that you don't speak all of the world's useful languages, though. So the idea here is to install the software necessary only for the languages and layouts you do use (see the box on the facing page). After that, you can use the Language bar to switch among them with a quick click.

2.14.8. Redesigning Your Toolbars

To change the look of a toolbar, right-click any blank spot within it.

Tip: How much horizontal taskbar space a toolbar consumes is up to you. Drag the border at the left edge of a toolbar to make it wider or narrower. That's a good point to remember if, in fact, you can't find a blank spot to right-click.

The resulting shortcut menu offers these choices, which appear above the usual taskbar shortcut menu choices:

View lets you change the size of the icons on the toolbar.
Open Folder works only with the Quick Launch and Links toolbars.

It turns out that the icons on these toolbars reflect the contents of corresponding folders on your PC. To see one, right-click a blank spot on the toolbar itself; from the shortcut menu, choose Open Folder.

Why is that useful? Because it means that you can add, rename, or delete icons en masse, by working in the folder instead of on the toolbar itself. Of course, you can also delete or rename any icon on these toolbars by right-clicking it and choosing Delete or Rename from the shortcut menu. But a window isn't nearly as claustrophobic as the toolbar itself.
Show Text identifies each toolbar icon with a text label.
Show Title makes the toolbar's name (such as "Quick Launch" or "Desktop") appear on the toolbar.
Close Toolbar makes the toolbar disappear.

2.14.9. Build Your Own Toolbars

The Quick Launch area of the taskbar is such a delight that you may actually develop a syndrome called Quick Launch Envyyou'll find that having only one isn't enough. You might wish to create several different Quick Launch toolbars, each stocked with the icons for a different project or person. One could contain icons for all the chapters of a book you're writing; another could list only your games .

Fortunately, it's easy to create as many different custom toolbars as you like, each of which behaves exactly like the Quick Launch toolbar.

Windows creates toolbars from folders; so before creating a toolbar of your own, you must create a folder and fill it with the stuff you want to toolbarize.

Next, right-click a blank spot on the taskbar. From the shortcut menu, choose Toolbars New Toolbar to open the New Toolbar dialog box, as shown in Figure 2-28. Find and click the folder you want, and then click Select Folder.

Figure 2-28. To create a new toolbar, begin by making a folder. Stock it with the icons you'll want to access from the taskbar. Amaze your friends !

Now there's a brand-new toolbar on your taskbar, whose buttons list the contents of the folder you selected. Feel free to tailor it as described in the previous discussionsby changing its icon sizes, hiding or showing the icon labels, or installing new icons onto it by dragging them from other Explorer windows.