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RibbonX Visual Designer 2010

 
Although the add-in has been tested and create a backup file when used there is always the potential for an error to lead to the corruption of a workbook. Therefore I strongly recommend that you take your own copy of the file before using the designer.

Ribbon Designer 2010 

The RibbonX Visual Designer is a VBA add-in designer to help with the construction of Ribbon interfaces.
This latest version still works with CustomUI for Excel, PowerPoint and Word files. For more details of what is possible see the page on the previous designer.
The latest version now has the ability to work with CustomUI14 for Excel. This will only be available if the add-in is used with Excel 2010. If you use this add-in with Excel 2007 you will be presented with the original designer options.

The following table details which customization, when present, will be visible for the version of the application being used.
Application File contains Application Uses
  CustomUI CustomUI14  
Excel 2007 X   CustomUI
X No custom ribbon
X X CustomUI
Excel 2010 X   CustomUI
  X CustomUI14
X X CustomUI14
In order to make this add-in version available I have made the decision to introduce the new features of customUI14 in stages.
This first stage includes all the new tabs, groups and properties in Excel 2010.

It does not include Contextual Menus or Backstage customization. I will add these as well as the other applications as and when I have time.
When the add-in is loaded 2 new buttons will appear on the Developer Tab.

 Ribbon designer buttons

The Loader menu contains the choice of custom ui to edit.

Designer menu

The Designer menu contains the Office Applications that can now be used.

Load RibbonX menu

I have also added a button to the Backstage section.

Backstage entry points for Ribbon Designer

Due to the number of reports from site visitors that the download files were reporting malware or malicious code, which I believe to be false positives. I have recompiled both the 32bit and 64bit files.

Download the latest version of RibbonX Visual Designer


Download the 64-bit RibbonX Visual Designer
See previous designer for details on general use.
There are 2 new properties included for use on the ribbon
Autoscale group. This will now allow the controls in your groups to collapse using the same behaviour as builtin controls.
As the width of the application alters the controls collapse in different ways. The button size will reduce, the text will be removed etc.

autoscale 1

autoscale 2

autoscale 3

autoscale 4

autoscale 5

autoscale 6

Download autoscale
centerVertically. This will position 1 or 2 controls centrally on the ribbon.

Center vertically 

Download centervertically
Image file selector for picking custom image files. 



The add-in will display a viewer containing all existing imagery for the file. The Browse button can be used to add new images.
Delete unused image files 
The 'Delete unused imagery files when saving' will remove files from Images folder.



Download the latest RibbonX Visual Designer
For instructions on how to install add-in
To replace existing add-in with a later version you simply need to overwrite the existing add-in. Make sure Excel is not running otherwise you will not be able to replace the file. The download also includes the schema files for each ui version which should be stored in the same location as the add-in in order to allow for xml validation.
Version History
  • Bug fix to prevent adding controls to built-in Groups
  • Version 2.31 May 2014
    • Added Supertip attribute to Gallery control
    • Bug fix for gallery items with no label attribute
  • Version 2.30 January 2014
    • Support for Unicode characters. The treeview control may not render the characters correctly but the properties textbox should.
  • Version 2.24 September 2013
    • Added option to Image dialog to delete unused image files from internal Image folder
    • Bug fix to allow text that could be interpreted as excel worksheet function
  • Version 2.23 January 2013
    • Bug fix to handle multiple group dialog launcher buttons
  • Version 2.22 April 2012
    • Error handling for xl2007 icons not supported in xl2010
  • Version 2.21 April 2012
    • Added ability to write to either CustomUI or CustomUI14 sections
    • Late binding of PowerPoint and Word to avoid missing library reference
    • Fixed Office menu (2007) entry points and nesting of menu items in editor

This add-in uses routines and techniques provided by the following.
Jan Karel Pieterse (www.jkp-ads.com)
JKP Application Development Services©
Class to Edit XML office file
Ron de Bruin (www.rondebruin.nl)
Zip file creation

Ron also has a great collection of Ribbon related articles.
Ken Puls (www.excelguru.ca)
Additional coding to the XML class for the customUI relationship to the rels file.
Randy Birch (http://vbnet.mvps.org/index.html)
UNC file functions
I also made extensive use of the RibbonX book Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon By Robert Martin, Ken Puls, Teresa Hennig
including trying all the example download files.

Doug Glancy has created an alternative to the CustomUI editor, which is a new addin for editing and validating Ribbon customUI XML.
It’s a form that lets you modify ribbons in workbook and addins

customUI Ribbon XML Editor

Here is a youTube video prepare by Dr Stephen L Gay and his son.

My thanks to them both for putting this together and making it available to others
The following error messages may be encountered if you do not have the required libraries registered on your pc.

"Can't find project or library" or

"Cannot run the macro btnLoadFile_click. The macro may not be available in this workbook or macros maybe disabled"

The 2nd error is of course possible if Macros are not enabled.

Libraries

  • Visual Basic For Applications
  • Microsoft Excel 12.0 Object Library
  • OLE Automation Microsoft Office 12.0
  • Object Library Microsoft Forms 2.0
  • Object Library Microsoft Windows Common Controls 6.0 (SP6)
  • Microsoft XML, v3.0
A recent Security update will also cause the problem due to changes in the MSCOMCTL library.
The following Microsoft knowledge base article details how to remove the cached .exd files.
Article ID: 2598039 MS12-027: Description of the security update for Office 2010: April 10, 2012
Another Security update that can cause problems due to changes in the MSCOMCTL library.
Article ID: 2687441 MS12-060: Description of the security update for 2007 Office system: August 14, 2012

 

64-bit version

I have now created a version that will work with 64-bit Excel.

Due to lack of support for certain form controls, namely treeview, listview and imagelist, I have had to create my own version of those controls using supported form controls.

Bug Fixes for 64-bit version

  • Bug fix to prevent adding controls to built-in Groups
  • Bug fix removal of debug.print command
  • Version 2.42 February 2016

    • Fixed insertion of selected toolbox control when using Insert button rather than double click

    • Implement InsertBefore and InsertAfter properties for tabs

 

 

Download the 64-bit RibbonX Visual Designer
   

Download the latest RibbonX Visual Designer

Created August 2004
Last updated 13th May 2020 


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