Excel® 2007 Power Programming with VBA

Chapter 22. Working with the Ribbon

In This Chapter

Perhaps the most significant change in Office 2007 is the new Ribbon-based user interface. This chapter provides an overview of the Ribbon and describes how it relates to VBA.

• The new Excel 2007 Ribbon UI, from a user’s perspective

• How you can use VBA to work with the Ribbon

• An introduction to customizing the Ribbon with RibbonX code

• Examples of workbooks that modify the Ribbon

• Boiler-plate code for creating an old-style toolbar

The Ribbon is a brand new concept in user interface design. You use XML to modify the Ribbon, but there are a few Ribbon-related operations that you can perform with VBA.

Ribbon Basics

The first thing you notice about Excel 2007 is its new look. The time-honored menu-and-toolbar user interface has been scrapped and replaced with a new tab-and-Ribbon interface. Although the new interface kind of resembles the old-fashioned menus-and-toolbars interface, you’ll find that it’s radically different.

Long-time Excel users have probably noticed that the menu system has become increasingly complicated with each new version. In addition, the number of toolbars has become almost overwhelming. After all, every new feature must be accessible. In the past, this access meant adding more items to the menus and building new toolbars. The Microsoft designers set out to solve this overcrowding problem, and the new Ribbon interface is their solution.

Time will tell how users will accept the new Ribbon interface. As I write this book, ...