Customizing the Toolbar
We can customize the toolbar so that we can hide the tools that we do not want to show in a GeoGebra applet. Moreover, we can even create a new tool by ourselves!
Classwork (customizing toolbar): The following is an exercise to students about constructing a midpoint between two points using straightedge and compass only. It does not make sense to let students have all the tools in the toolbar. Your task is to take away all the unnecessary tools and keep only the essential ones in the toolbar. To do this, click the menu icon on the top-right corner and select "Customize Toolbar" in the "Tools" menu. Then drag the tools you do not want in the toolbar to the right hand side.
(Note: You can make the exercise much harder by taking away 
i.e. students can only use compass to construct the midpoint!)
i.e. students can only use compass to construct the midpoint!)
Classwork (Making a new tool): Do the following step by step in the applet below.
- Draw a triangle using
with vertices A, B, and C. - Draw the angles of the triangle using
. - Draw the angle bisectors of the three angles of the triangle using
. - Construct the intersection point X of the angle bisectors using
. Point X is the incenter of the triangle. - Draw the foot of the perpendicular P from X to the side AB using
. - Draw the circle centered at X through P using
. This is the incircle of the triangle. - Click the menu icon and select "Create New Tool" from the "Tools" menu.
- Select Point A, B, C in the "Input Objects" tab. Then select Point X and the incircle in the "Output Objects" tab.
- In the "Name & Icon" tab, type "Incircle" as the tool name and type "Select three points of a triangle" in the "Tool help" box. Check the box beside "Show in Toolbar". Then click the "Finish" button.
- You will see a new tool icon
appearing in the toolbar. You can test the new tool by first draw another triangle and then use this new tool to see if you can get its incenter and incircle. - If you want to save this new tool for use in the future, you can click the menu icon and select "Mange Tools" from the "Tools" menu. You will see the tool you have created. Then click "Save" button to save the new tool as a GeoGebra Tool file (.ggt) in your local computer. Next time if you want to use this tool, you can go to the "Mange Tools" and open this file to load it.