I am writing an addin to Office (both 2007 and 2010), and have so far used the Fluent Ribbon XML to customize the different ribbons.
The problem I am having now with that approach, is that I want to have a bit more flexibility in my code, and have different modules add more buttons to the ribbon, without hard coding them in XML - The addin is composed of several disconnected modules, and it doesn't "know" exactly what ribbon elements it might need.
Is there a way to do it? I bumped into the LoadCustomUI method on the Application object, but it is not available in C#. Looks like just what I might have used for my scenario.
For .NET 4 (which I assume you're using because of targetting Office 2010), you'll override CreateRibbonExtensibilityObject. More info can be found on this page: Ribbon Object Model. This is also a good read: Updating the Controls on a Ribbon at Run Time.
Related
I have a some VBA that will file an outgoing message as a Task (and do some other things) if I tag it. One way I tag is by calling a macro that sets a UserProperty; I have assigned the macro to a button on the command bar.
I would like to visually mark the message as having been tagged before I send it, and then implement a toggle, but I'm struggling to find a way of doing it. So keeping the button depressed, or highlighted, would work but I can't see how to do this in the Fluent UI stuff. Alternatively, I'd like to add something to the area to the right of the "pop out" "discard" buttons at the top of the message.
I tried adding a category to the new message, but this is not displayed in the pane. I do have a UserProperty assigned, but I don't know how to display that either.
Any ideas?
Many thanks
VBA doesn't allow customizing the Fluent UI. You need to develop a COM add-in instead. To implement a toggle button on the Ribbon you need to define callbacks where you may check the user property value and update the UI accordingly. The Fluent UI is described in-depth in the following series of articles:
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 2 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3 of 3)
I am currently working on an PowerPoint Addin and I am currently finishing the Ribbon. I'd like to create a control to change the size of objects that looks similar to the inbuild button "ShapeWidth" and "ShapeHeight":
However, I couldn't find the correct control type and hence I built the below by myself using an editbox and buttons. Although it's working I find the other style way cleaner but I haven't found the correct type.
Not all Ribbon X (Office Fluent UI) control types that Microsoft uses in its Office applications are made available to third-party developers. This, I'm afraid, falls into that category.
You should probably be able to get the image, at least, by specifying the idMso for the built-in control.
I have created a macro that will set the categories of out going mail without needing to open the tag dialog. I have added the macro to the ribbon via the "Customize Ribbon" options on outlook itself. That macro works fine, however I would like the button to be highlighted (toggled on) when the category is set and then regular (toggle off) when the category is no longer set.
I only have basic VB knowledge but have good knowledge of java so the concepts are familiar just not the syntax. This is also the first macro I've ever done.
I have tried searching Google and Stack for an answer but I think due to my lack of knowledge I'm not using the correct keyword to get a useful result.
Thanks for the help.
VBA macros don't allow creating a custom ribbon UI. You need to develop a COM add-in if you want to customize the Fluent UI by adding a toggle button to the Outlook window.
Take a look at the following articles to create a custom ribbon UI:
Walkthrough: Create a custom tab by using the Ribbon Designer
Walkthrough: Create a custom tab by using Ribbon XML
The Fluent UI is described in depth in the following series of articles:
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 2 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3 of 3)
I'm using VSTO with VB.NET for Excel 2013. I'm developing an application-level add-in, but I can't make two different workbooks store different "ribbon state". For example, when I want to enable a button, I use the following code:
Globals.Ribbons.Ribbon1.myButton.Enable = False
This makes the element "myButton" to be disabled on each opened workbook, but I want to make it disabled only for one workbook.
The way I'm doing now is to handle the event WorkbookActivate, to change the ribbon state. The problem is: this way, the user sees an invalid state at other workbooks that are not on the top.
There is some better workaround? There isn't a way to manage the ribbon instances (and not only the global element as I am doing)?
Thanks
There is some better workaround? There isn't a way to manage the ribbon instances (and not only the global element as I am doing)?
You need to use callbacks instead. Try to use the getEnabled callback instead.
Moreover, when required you can use the IRibbonUI interface methods to force Office applications to update the UI controls. The Invalidate method invalidates the cached values for all of the controls of the Ribbon user interface. See Overview of the IRibbonUI Object .
You can read more about the Ribbon UI (aka Fluent UI) in the following series of articles in MSDN:
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 2 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3 of 3)
I am developing an outlook 2007 add-in which is based on an existing outlook 2010 plugin. I managed to get most of the features working, because most of them were backwards compatible. However there are some I could not, because 2007 simply did not have certain features. \
Backstage view
Main ribbon
My question is - what would you suggest for an equivalent interface? Where would you put in outlook 2007 something that was in backstage view in 2010?
After much deliberation I decided to use a custom menu. All features available through the backstage view in 2010 will be converted to menu items in the custom menu in Outlook 2007.
Also buttons from the main ribbon will become items in the same custom menu.
This solution, while not as elegant as Fluent UI will work, I think, because all of my plugin's functionality will be available from one spot.