Changing a Toolbar Button Image

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated August 21, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003

2

Excel provides you with quite a bit of flexibility in how your toolbars appear. You can change the appearance of your toolbar buttons so they accurately reflect how you want Excel to appear. For instance, you may have added a custom macro to a toolbar, and you want to change it so that a graphic appears on the toolbar button instead of the macro name. Follow these steps:

  1. Right-click on any toolbar visible in Excel. Excel displays a Context menu.
  2. Choose Customize from the Context menu. Excel displays the Customize dialog box with the Toolbars tab selected. (See Figure 1.)

    3. Figure 1. The Toolbars tab of the Customize dialog box.

  3. Right-click your mouse on the toolbar button you want to modify. Excel displays a Context menu.
  4. Choose Change Button Image from the Context menu. Excel displays a list of available graphic images you can use.
  5. Click your mouse on the graphic image you want to use. The image appears on the toolbar button.
  6. If you want to get rid of the text that appears on the toolbar button, continue with the next step, otherwise, skip to step 9.
  7. Right-click your mouse on the toolbar button you want to modify. Excel displays a Context menu.
  8. Choose Default Style from the Context menu. The toolbar button changes to only an image.
  9. Click on Close to get rid of the Customize dialog box.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2725) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Finding a Missing Toolbar

A few methods for finding an errant toolbar in Word.

Discover More

Selecting Ten Random Numbers

If you need to generate a group of random numbers, you may be at a loss as to where to start. This tip looks at easy ways ...

Discover More

Arranging Document Windows

When you have multiple documents open at the same time, you need a way to control how those document windows appear on ...

Discover More

Best-Selling VBA Tutorial for Beginners Take your Excel knowledge to the next level. With a little background in VBA programming, you can go well beyond basic spreadsheets and functions. Use macros to reduce errors, save time, and integrate with other Microsoft applications. Fully updated for the latest version of Office 365. Check out Microsoft 365 Excel VBA Programming For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Making the Formula Bar Persistent

If your Formula bar disappears when you load a workbook, it could be due to the presence of a macro that turns it off. ...

Discover More

Renaming a Toolbar

Create your own toolbars and, at some point, you may have a hankering to change their names. Here's how you can make the ...

Discover More

Creating a New Toolbar

Excel's interface can be easily modified to reflect the way you want to do your work. This tip explains how you can ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is six minus 4?

2021-08-23 20:33:27

Allen

Richard,

No, it doesn't work in Office 2019. As it says at the end of the tip, "This tip (2725) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003."

In fact, this whole site is for older versions of Excel. If you want tips for the newer versions, see the notice at the top-right of every page on this site.

-Allen

2021-08-23 18:46:02

Richard Blunt

Does this work in Office 2019? I thought they discontinued it several years ago... :( I tried these steps hoping that maybe they brought it back but none of this worked for me. This looks like the way I used to do it in the old days :)

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2026 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.