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Customize the toolbars

The main toolbar provides selected built-in commands. The custom toolbar can also hold named external tools and action groups. Arrange buttons around the work you repeat, while keeping the menus available for commands you use less often. Rearranging a toolbar does not itself change audio tags.

Show a toolbar or recover hidden buttons

Use View → Toolbars → Main toolbar and Custom toolbar to show or hide the complete bars. Those switches preserve their configured items.

The custom toolbar starts enabled but empty. It will not appear until it has a visible command, tool or action-group item. A list containing only separators and spacers does not make a useful custom toolbar appear.

If buttons disappeared, check the whole-bar switch first, then open its customization dialog and check the item visibility. Hide all inside the dialog and hiding the complete toolbar are separate settings. Use the View menu to recover them; loading a whole old configuration changes much more.

Practice on the main toolbar

  1. Choose View → Toolbars → Customize main toolbar….
  2. Select Save tags in the list. Use Rename… or F4 to give this button the short label Save reviewed tags. Enter keeps the name; Escape cancels the current rename. The command still performs Save tags.
  3. Select another item and use ↑ Move up or ↓ Move down. Checked items are visible in this order. Unchecking an item hides it without removing the underlying menu command.
  4. Add a Separator for a visual division, or a Spacer to push following items toward the far end of the available toolbar space.
  5. Choose OK to save the arrangement. Cancel closes the dialog without saving its draft list. Check the result on screen.

A renamed button keeps its command identity. It does not become a new macro, change the target fields, alter its shortcut or change when the operation writes. Hover or focus buttons to read their descriptions in the status area. A disabled button still follows the command's selection, source and busy-state rules.

Reset in the main-toolbar dialog restores its default item arrangement. It does not change the separate whole-bar show/hide switch. Show all and Hide all affect the dialog's item checkboxes; they are not a reset of options, files or tag values.

Main commands available

The default visible command buttons are Open folder, Add files, Save tags, Reload, Filename → Tag, Tag → Filename, Actions and Numbering, with separators between task groups.

The customization list also offers the following built-in commands:

Task family Other available buttons
Recover or remove Undo, Redo, Remove tag
Edit and convert Extended tags, Filename → Filename, Text File → Tag, Tag → Tag, Quick action
Output and inspect Playlist, Export, Find, Refresh
Sources and artwork MusicBrainz, Discogs, Covers
File access and workspace Show in folder, Play, Tag panel, Filter, Options

These are toolbar labels, which can be shorter than their menu labels. Redo can invoke the available Repeat behavior when there is no recorded redo step. The menu reference and action guide explain the actual operations and their write timing. You do not need to show every button, and the menus stay available.

Build a custom toolbar

  1. Create and save any external tool or action group you want to reference. Give definitions distinct, recognizable names.
  2. Choose View → Toolbars → Customize custom toolbar….
  3. In Add to the custom toolbar, choose an entry under Commands, Tools or Action groups, then choose Add.
  4. Add the other needed entries. Use visibility checkboxes, move controls, Rename…, separators and spacers as with the main toolbar.
  5. Choose OK, then enable Custom toolbar under View if it was hidden. Review selection and pending edits before running a newly added action.

Adding an item already in this custom list selects and shows its existing entry; it does not create another copy with the same identity. Remove removes the selected custom-toolbar item. Clear empties the draft custom list. Neither command deletes the original tool, action group or built-in command. Changes are kept only when the dialog is saved with OK.

Keep labels separate from references

For example, suppose you saved an external tool named Inspect track and an action group named House#Credit cleanup. A custom button can have a shorter label without changing which saved definition it references:

Saved item identity Custom button label What remains unchanged
tool:Inspect track Inspect The tool definition is still named Inspect track
action:House#Credit cleanup Credits The action group still has its full saved name
save Save reviewed tags The built-in Save tags command and write scope

The identity strings in this table explain the association; choose entries through the dialog instead of typing those strings into a metadata field. Action-group choices display their submenu path using a readable separator.

Tool and action references use the saved name. If that definition is removed or renamed, an old button can become unavailable with a reason such as This tool no longer exists. Edit the custom toolbar. Remove that stale item and add the intended current definition. Renaming the button's label alone does not retarget it. Duplicate tool names are especially confusing because a named custom button resolves the first matching tool; use distinct names rather than relying on duplicate labels to select a different program.

A named action-group button runs that group directly, even if its checkbox in the action library is off. It is different from opening the Actions dialog to apply the currently checked groups. Review the definition and copied test files before clicking it. Its work can write immediately.

Use the customization keyboard controls

Focus the item list first. The same controls work in main and custom customization dialogs. Primary-modifier shortcuts use Command on macOS and Control on Windows/Linux. Alt is Option on macOS.

Key Result in the item list
F4 Rename the selected item
Space Toggle the selected item's visibility
Primary+E Show all items
Primary+D Hide all items
Alt+ArrowUp Move the item up
Alt+ArrowDown Move the item down
Alt+PageUp Move the item to the beginning
Alt+PageDown Move the item to the end

Plain Up/Down, Home and End change the selected item. Inside the rename text box, Enter keeps and Escape cancels that edit. Closing the full customization dialog with Cancel discards its unsaved list changes.

Leading, trailing and adjacent visible separators are omitted from the rendered bar; a separator near hidden items can therefore disappear. Spacers remain layout items. Keep names short: saved custom labels have surrounding whitespace removed and a 60 UTF-16-code-unit limit, so some emoji count as two units. These are button labels; the saved tool/group names are separate data.

Keep a known layout

A configuration backup includes saved toolbar preferences. Keep one before substantial reorganization. Main-toolbar Reset and custom-toolbar Clear are narrower tools than restoring the whole application configuration. On small screens, available space and layout change; use menus when a full toolbar would be inconvenient. This does not qualify mobile external-tool execution or desktop-only file commands.