Customize Preview toolbar on Mac
The Preview app on your Mac is a versatile app that can replace many tasks of other apps. By default there are a number of buttons that you can customize so that your favorite buttons are easy to find.
- To adjust
- Keep it clear
- Back to standard
Preview: Customize toolbar
You can use the Preview app on your Mac to open a variety of files, including photos, PDFs, and other text files. You can also edit these files using Preview. The following tip can certainly be useful: you can expand the standard components in the button bar with additional options that may be useful for your use. You can also remove items that you do not use from the button bar.
You can easily customize the toolbar in Preview on your Mac with these steps:
- Open a file on your Mac with the Preview app.
- Then click with your right mouse button anywhere in the button bar to activate the options menu.
- Now choose Customize button bar.
- You can also directly click on Appearance > Customize Button Bar.
You now get a comprehensive overview of all possible buttons that you can drag into the toolbar. If you work a lot with photos, the ‘Slideshow’, ‘Actual size’ and ‘Info’ options can be very useful. For documents, you could add a ‘Print’ button, or an option where you can easily read the page numbering.
You can easily drag the buttons into your toolbar. In the same way you can also delete buttons that you rarely or never use. Drag this from the toolbar to any place in the menu and when you release the mouse button it disappears.
Keep the Preview toolbar clear
If you have added many different buttons, you can also distribute them across the bar with the Empty space and Flexible space buttons. These allow you to add empty spaces to make the button bar clearer. The difference between the two is that the Blank Space button is exactly the same size as the other standard buttons. With Flexible space you add empty space that depends on what fits between the buttons. The Flexible space adapts automatically.
You can also set the button bar so that only symbols or text are visible. If you are not sure what a button is for, it can help to enable the text. You do this as follows:
- Open a file in Preview and right-click on the toolbar at the top.
- Choose Customize button bar. You can also click Appearance > Customize Button Bar.
- At the bottom of ‘Show’, choose Text Only, Symbols and Text or Symbols Only.
If you choose Text Only, keep in mind that the buttons are somewhat smaller. However, this does give you more space for the file, because the top bar is a lot narrower.
Preview button bar back to default
If you would prefer to return to the default setting after a number of adjustments, you can easily drag it in its entirety via the same menu.
- Open a file in Preview and right-click on the toolbar at the top.
- Choose Customize button bar. You can also click Appearance > Customize Button Bar.
- Drag the entire standard button bar at the bottom upwards in its entirety. All your previously set buttons will now be changed to Apple’s default setting.
Any more tips about Preview? Then check out these articles:
- Preview lets you extract images from a Mac app
- Combine multiple PDFs with the Preview app on Mac
