Minimising the Ribbon

pootle flump · #1 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 12:40

I have just started looking at playing around with the ribbon in VBA, and have learned enough that it is a blooming nightmare.

I am scaling down my plans. I think that I would be satisfied with minimising the ribbon. To do this I think I either need to:
1) Read the registry to see the current ribbon state and conditionally use Send Keys to minimise the ribbon if it is currently maximised (yuck)
2) Download some tool from MS, read a heck of a lot of documentation, create some XML and paste it into the document XML (double yuck)

Are these basically my options? Is there something much simpler I am missing?

Thanks
poots

Colin Legg · #2 (**permalink**) 11-06-09, 17:49

Depends on what your goal is.

When the ribbon is minimised, should user(s) be able to restore it and do you want the associated shortcut key functionality disabled too?

pootle flump · #3 (**permalink**) 11-09-09, 07:27

Yes
No

Colin Legg · #4 (**permalink**) 11-09-09, 19:19

1. Yeah, this option is pretty sucky.

2. The RibbonX option isn't so bad. All you have to do is set the the startFromScratch attribute to true:

HTML Code:

<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006/01/customui">
    <ribbon startFromScratch="true">
    </ribbon>
</customUI>

You could just use notepad for this but the Office '07 custom UI editor you mentioned does make life easier.

3. A third option is to use an old Excel 4.0 macro

Code:

Application.ExecuteExcel4Macro "SHOW.TOOLBAR(""Ribbon"",false)"

pootle flump · #5 (**permalink**) 11-10-09, 07:43

thanks Colin

Forgot to mention (in fact the ramifications have only just struck me now) that this would be run in 2003 compatibility mode. As such, I had late binding in mind but of course when it comes to the XML I'm stuffed.

Option 3 doesn't cut it either - I want to minimise not remove.

Thanks for your help - you've confirmed what I thought

Colin Legg · #6 (**permalink**) 11-10-09, 14:31

Hi pootle,

As I'm sure you know (but I should point out in case anyone takes me up on it), option [2] code I posted doesn't hide the ribbon either.

Option 1 it is then?

Roll on Office 2010 (hopefully it will be exposed in the object model)!

pootle flump · #7 (**permalink**) 11-10-09, 19:06

I didn't so thanks for clarifying.

It does seem very odd that the ribbon isn't just exposed by the object model. On the whole I still find the ribbon a real barrier as a user, and this is after a year of using 2007. Annoying to find it is even worse from the perspective of a developer!

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