Back in July of 2021 our post “My QAT is All Words! Give Me Back My Icons” was visited a lot! Which we interpret to mean the PowerPoint update to the default QAT display affected a lot of people. In summary, we lamented how Microsoft PowerPoint’s update altered the visibility of the 37 icons in TLC’s standard QAT setup. After some research, we found the new setting and “fixed” the QAT bar. The solution was (note below is the new-new way to update the QAT bar text labels), right click an empty space on the QAT and use the new option, “hide command labels” to return the QAT to icons only. Yay – our QAT once again was icons vs. text labels. 

Fast forward three years to November 2024, and we have discovered that new command, “hide command labels”, has moved. Here is the new process – and solution if your QAT is showing long text labels and not icons:  

  1. Open PowerPoint and go to the File tab in the top-left corner of the window. 
  2. Select Options from the list on the left-hand side. This opens the PowerPoint Options dialog box. 
  3. In the PowerPoint Options dialog box, click on Quick Access Toolbar from the list on the left. 
  4. Under the Customize Quick Access Toolbar section, uncheck (or check) the box to “Always show command labels”.  

Hopefully this is helpful! And if you are looking to turbo charge your QAT, download and install the TLC Creative custom QAT – read about it and download here.