A toolbar is the strip of small buttons and icons in a computer program, usually across the top of the window, that you click to do things — save, print, make text bold, change the colour, undo. The idea is that your common jobs sit out in the open where one click reaches them, instead of being hidden inside menus. Every program has its own set, and most let you add or remove buttons so the bar holds the tools you actually use. The word spreads a bit wider than that. In a web browser, the toolbar is the row along the top with the back arrow, the address box and your extensions; a program you install may add its own toolbar to your browser, and this kind — the unwanted browser toolbar that arrives with free software — has such a bad reputation that 'toolbar' by itself can sound like a warning. On a phone or tablet the same row of buttons is usually called a toolbar too, though it often sits at the bottom of the screen instead of the top. Related words are worth keeping apart: a menu bar holds words you click to open lists, a status bar at the bottom reports information rather than taking clicks, and a sidebar runs down the side of the window.