Customizing The Microsoft Access Ribbon, Part 1

Welcome

Today is part one of my series on building custom ribbons and menus. Today, we're going to talk about all kinds of different stuff, and I'm going to show you how to set up custom ribbons for your entire database, apply specific ribbons to individual forms, and swap them on the fly. We're going to learn about callback functions using built-in Access images, custom images, and tons of ribbon controls: check boxes, drop-down lists, combo boxes, and more.

Resources

• Full Course Lessons Page
• Course Topic Outline

Topics Covered

In Lesson 1, we're going to start learning how to build custom ribbons. We'll create the USysRibbons table, which is a hidden system table that will contain your ribbon data. We'll see how to build the ribbon XML, which is basically a text file that indicates what goes in the ribbon – the different groups and tabs and such. We'll learn how to apply a ribbon to an entire database, and how to build a ribbon just for a single specific form, like your customer form. Then, we'll learn how to swap the ribbons on the fly with VBA code. You can click a button or have an event that runs it and changes the ribbon.

In Lesson 2, we are continuing with custom ribbons. We're going to learn how to create buttons with our own custom functions within them. Instead of solely relying on built-in Access functions, such as Paste or Print, we'll be crafting our own unique buttons to perform our own specific actions. We'll explore the concept of callback functions. Furthermore, we'll discover how to use the built-in Access images, those small icons that come with Access. And, of course, we'll also explore using our own custom images. We'll cover the LoadPicture function, along with various properties including ControlTip Text (also known as supertip). We'll learn about label controls, dialog launchers (those tiny buttons at the bottom of a group), and sending parameters to our callback functions to open different forms with varying parameters. We'll even create a ribbon button to open the contacts for the current customer directly on the customer form.

In Lesson 3, we're going to build a Compact and Repair button right on our Ribbon Editor ribbon, so we don't have to keep switching back to the Database Tools ribbon. We're going to learn about the separator, the split button, toggle button, checkbox, edit button, dropdown, and combo box controls.

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Keywords

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