Declutter: Four Icons for the Same operation in Toolbar?

In an open iWork document, you may have these four icons in the Toolbar: insert a Text Box, insert a pre-designed shape from the Shapes drop-down menu, insert an object from the Objects drop-down menu, insert a Table, and insert a Chart.

This is all very well when you start using iWork, or use it for one particular purpose, e.g. for writing texts with an occasional image. 

When you progress to more sophisticated uses, with complex designs requiring multiple operations, such as moving objects, layering, masking, editing images, – you may want to add icons for these operations to the Toolbar. And it becomes cluttered. Some icons can even be pushed out of the view in the Toolbar. 

This is the point when you may want to consider removing Text Box, Shapes, Table and Charts icons from the Toolbar. To remove the icon, press Command and drag the icon off the Toolbar. It will disappear in a puff of animated smoke.

To insert a text box, a shape, a table, and a chart, you can now use the one remaining icon – Objects, with its drop-down menu. 

Click on Objects in the Toolbar, and you will see Text Box, Shapes with an additional menu, Table, and Charts, with an additional menu. Choose what you need to insert. 

To put the icons back into the Toolbar, go to the View menu and choose Customize Toolbar. Drag the required icons to the Toolbar strip at the bottom of the dialogue and click Done.

If, in your work, you have a few operations or tools that you use often, put them in the Toolbar for one-click activation. Use the same path: View > Customize Toolbar. Drag icons to the Toolbar strip.