Hi Steve,
Over the last couple versions of Office and Windows the
Office Shortcut Bar was having some issues with other
software and the design layout of Windows screens changed
to focus users on the taskbars and the abilities of Windows
toolbars to be customized to do similar functions.
You can use an older version of Office's shortcut bar as is,
customize Windows toolbars or try a 3rd party product.
Here's some information that may be helfup on each approach.
1. 3rd party products.
There are both shareware and free 3rd party toolbars
that some folks say they like using. Here is a list of
some of them.
a. JetAudio Toolbar.
Similar in use to the Office Shortcut Bar(OSB)
http://jetaudio.com/products/jettoolbar
b. H-Menu, also similar to the OSB, but with more
features you can configure if you want to:
http://h-menu.com/main_en.htm
c. Powerpro
Similar in appearance to the OSB and can autohide,
but with additional popup configuration choices and
some more detailed (techie?) optional features.
http://windowspowerpro.com/xsamplebar.htm
d. Slickrun
While it doesn't look like the OSB it can be
a useful alternative once you're used to it.
For example you can type in 'Word' in the box
and it will launch Word, or you can type 'google'
and it launches your browser to the Google search page.
It can be locked in position on your desktop or it
can minimize to the system tray as an icon as well
as has a hotkey to pop it up.
http://bayden.com/slickrun/
e. Perfect Menu
http://www.pitrinec.com/pmeindex.htm
f. Drag Strip
http://www.aladdinsys.com/win/dragstrip/index.html
If you try or choose one of the above tools please
post back to let others know how you like it as an
Office Shortcut Bar (OSB )replacement.
2. Use Windows Built-In Toolbar Customization Features
a. You can use the Quicklaunch toolbar in
Windows and drag copies of your Office shortcuts
to it, or
b. Create a new Toolbar by right clicking
on a blank spot on the Windows Taskbar, unlocking it
and creating a new toolbar(folder) and drag the Office
or other shortcut icons to it. You can tear off that
toolbar and place it and size it as needed anywhere on
your desktop.
3. Use an Older version of the Office Shortcut Bar
If you have an older version of Office with the shortcut
bar and running MSOffice.exe from Start=>Run doesn't
start it, you can do a custom install of the old version
of Office and choose just the Shortcut bar. (Note that this
may put a great deal of the core old Office files back on
the PC if you've removed the older version). The OSB
should work, but will be 'as is' and doesn't support
things like high resolution icons. You may also be
prompted to install updates to the older Office version
when visiting
http://officeupdate.com
====
Can anyone help and advise why is there no Shortcut Bar
in Office 2003? This is a great tool in all other
versions and I miss having it. >>
--
I hope this helps you,
Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Office 2003 explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/editions.asp