Access Developer 45
Customizing The Microsoft Access Ribbon, Part 2
Welcome
This is part two of my series on custom ribbons, and today we're going to focus on customizing the ribbon and context menus.
First, we'll look at how to create a custom gallery and work with the Backstage view to hide unwanted options. Then, you'll learn how to add your own items to the Backstage tab menu and create Quick Access Toolbars for specific forms or reports.
We'll also cover how to replace the hidden system tables with your own custom ribbon table and load ribbons using VBA.
After that, we'll move on to the highly requested topic of custom right-click context menus, showing you how to customize them, add buttons with custom actions, and even load your own images into those buttons.
Resources
Topics Covered
In Lesson 1, we continue working on customizing the ribbon. We'll learn how to create a gallery and a custom menu on the ribbon. Then, we'll start working with the Backstage, which is another name for the File menu. We'll see how to hide print options and most of the other menu options, except for the Home menu option.
In Lesson 2, I'm going to show you how to add your own items to a Backstage tab menu. You can add your own categories, buttons, and all kinds of things directly on the Backstage, right on the File menu.
Lesson 3 is nice, short, and simple. I'm going to show you how to create custom Quick Access Toolbars for specific forms or reports. It's easy to do this for the whole database in File Options. But if you want a custom Quick Access Toolbar for each specific form, you can do that with this technique.
In Lesson 4, we're going to get rid of that hidden system table called USysRibbons. We're not going to use it. I don't like messing with hidden system tables at all. So we're going to create our own custom RibbonT table. Then, we'll use Application.LoadCustomUI to load our own ribbons instead of relying on that system table. We'll do that on startup, and I'll show you how to work that into the database.
In Lesson 5, we're going to start talking about what everybody's been emailing me about: right-click context menus, those right-click pop-up menus. We're going to start working on those in this lesson.
In Lesson 6, we continue with custom context menus. I'm going to show you how to figure out the built-in button IDs. We're going to loop through all the controls and build a form where we can search for a control by name to get its ID. It'll be pretty cool.
In Lesson 7, we are finishing up with context menus. We're going to learn how to make custom buttons on your right-click pop-up menus. We'll learn about the OnAction event to add custom functions behind those buttons, so you can click on a button and have it do whatever you want. We'll also see how to use FaceIDs for the built-in icons or LoadPicture to load your own custom images in your buttons, like my pretty face.
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Keywords
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Intro In this lesson, we continue working with Microsoft Access to further customize ribbons and menus. You will learn how to create custom backstage menus, set up Quick Access Toolbars for specific forms, and build your own ribbons table to replace the system table. We will also cover adding items to the backstage file menu, working with right-click context menus, identifying control IDs, and adding custom buttons with your own functions and icons. This is part 2.Transcript Today is part two of my Customizing Ribbons and Menus series. We are going to pick up where we left off and develop a 44.
We are going to start by looking at creating custom backstage menus. That is this thing when you hit File. That is called the Backstage. It is the File menu.
We are going to look at setting up Custom Quick Access Toolbars. We are going to set things across the top of Access, per form. So every form can have its own Quick Access Toolbar.
We will build our own ribbons table so we do not have to use that use Sys Ribbons anymore. And we can load custom ribbons when the database starts up.
Then we will get to the thing that everybody has been bugging me about - these guys, right-click Pop Up menus, also called Context Menus. We will learn about the Command Barrier's collection. We will loop through all the controls in the system. We will actually build a little tool so we can go through and loop through all the different controls and find out what their IDs and their captions are.
We will see how to add custom buttons to menus. We will assign our own custom functions to those buttons, so you can have a right-click menu with a custom function on it. And we will see how to add custom pictures or use the built-in Face IDs for the button icons.
Lots of stuff today.
Of course, as I mentioned before, this class follows developer 44. This is a pretty hard prerequisite. If you have not watched developer 44, go watch that first. I cover a lot of stuff in developer 44 that is crucial and fundamental to understanding this stuff today. And if you do not watch that class, you are not going to understand what is going on today.
So this is basically a two-part series. And of course, before that, I strongly recommend all of my beginner, expert, advanced, and developer classes, levels 1 through 43. They are designed to be followed one after the other. Do not skip levels.
It is currently September of 2024, so I am using Access 365, which is roughly equivalent to Access 2021. 2024 is not out yet. It is due out later this year.
If you have any questions about the material covered in today's class, feel free to post them right on the page that you are on. Just scroll down to the bottom, and you will see a box that says post a new comment or question there. There is also an Access forum on my website, in case you have any other questions that are not necessarily related to today's class. But you have to ask them somewhere - ask them here.
All right, let's take a closer look at what is covered in developer 45.
In lesson 1, we are continuing our work with customizing the ribbon. We will see how to create a gallery, a custom menu on the ribbon. Then we will start working with the backstage, which is another name for the file menu. We will see how to hide print options, and hide pretty much all the other menu options on there as well, except for that home menu option. You cannot seem to get rid of that one.
In lesson 2, I am going to show you how to add your own items to a backstage tab menu, so you can add your own categories and buttons and all kinds of things right on the backstage, right on the file menu. We will do that in lesson 2.
Lesson 3 is nice and short and simple. I am going to show you how to create custom quick access toolbars for specific forms or reports. It is easy to do it for the whole database - you can do that in file options. But if you want a custom quick access toolbar for each specific form, you can do that with this technique.
In lesson 4, we are going to get rid of that hidden system table called use-sys-ribbons. We are not going to use it. I do not like messing with those hidden system tables at all. So we are going to create our own custom ribbon t table. Then we will use application.loadcustom-ui to load our own ribbons in instead of relying on that system table. And we will do that on startup and then I will show you how to work that into the database.
In lesson 5, we are going to start talking about what everybody has been emailing me about - right-click context menus. Those right-click pop-up menus. We are going to start working on those in this lesson.
In lesson 6, we are continuing with custom context menus. I am going to show you how to figure out the built-in button IDs. We are going to loop through all the controls. We will actually build a form where we can search for a control by name to get its ID. It will be pretty cool.
In lesson 7, we are finishing up with context menus. We are going to learn how to make custom buttons on your right-click pop-up menus. We will learn about the action event to add custom functions behind those buttons so you can click on a button and do whatever you want to do. We will see how to use the face IDs for the built-in icons or load pictures so you can load your own custom images in your buttons like my pretty face.
Thanks for watching.Quiz Q1. What is the "Backstage" in Microsoft Access commonly known as?
A. The File menu
B. The Ribbon
C. The Home tab
D. The Navigation Pane
Q2. Which feature allows every form to have its own customized Quick Access Toolbar?
A. Per-form Quick Access Toolbar setup
B. Universal Ribbon
C. Global Toolbar Assignment
D. System Table Menus
Q3. Why does the instructor suggest building your own ribbons table?
A. To avoid using the hidden system table called use-sys-ribbons
B. To speed up database performance
C. To add tables to forms automatically
D. To enable external data connections
Q4. What will lesson 2 of developer 45 focus on?
A. Adding custom items to the backstage tab menu
B. Hiding the navigation pane
C. Securing database files
D. Importing Excel data
Q5. What tool will be built to help identify control IDs and captions?
A. A form that loops through all controls in the system
B. A macro that prints database schema
C. A report listing table properties
D. An external Excel script
Q6. What can you assign to custom right-click context menu buttons?
A. Your own custom functions
B. Table relationships
C. Database encryption
D. Report formatting
Q7. What can be used to give custom buttons on menus visual icons?
A. Face IDs or custom pictures
B. Only built-in icons
C. Only emojis
D. Macros from Excel
Q8. Why is watching Developer 44 a prerequisite for this class?
A. It covers fundamental concepts required for understanding Developer 45
B. It provides sample data for the exercises
C. It explains VBA basics
D. It shows how to export databases
Q9. How does the instructor suggest handling questions not related to the current lesson?
A. Posting them in the website's Access forum
B. Emailing them directly to Microsoft
C. Saving them for the next video
D. Ignoring them
Q10. In lesson 4, what method is used to load custom ribbons when Access starts up?
A. application.loadcustom-ui
B. loadribbon.startup
C. form.loadribbons
D. sys-ribbons.loader
Answers: 1-A; 2-A; 3-A; 4-A; 5-A; 6-A; 7-A; 8-A; 9-A; 10-A
DISCLAIMER: Quiz questions are AI generated. If you find any that are wrong, don't make sense, or aren't related to the video topic at hand, then please post a comment and let me know. Thanks.Summary Today's video from Access Learning Zone is part two of my Customizing Ribbons and Menus series. We are building on the concepts covered in the previous lesson, Developer 44, so if you have not completed that course yet, I highly recommend going through it first. It is an essential foundation, and much of what we will do today depends on the knowledge from that class.
We begin by exploring custom backstage menus, which refer to the section that appears when you click the File tab in Access. This area is officially known as the backstage, and it allows you to customize what users see when they go into the File menu. You will learn how to organize and modify this area to suit your application's specific needs.
Moving on, I will demonstrate how to set up Custom Quick Access Toolbars across the top of your Access window. But we will go one step further and see how you can configure these toolbars on a per-form basis, which means every form in your database can display its own unique Quick Access Toolbar if you wish.
Another key topic we cover is moving away from the use of the hidden system table called use-sys-ribbons. Instead, I will show you how to build your own ribbons table. By doing this, you gain more control over your customization and can load your own ribbons when the database starts.
A major focus of today's session is right-click pop-up menus, also known as context menus. Many of you have requested more information about these. We will discuss the Command Bars collection, which controls these pop-up menus. I will walk you through how to loop through all the controls in the system and even create a tool that helps you find the control IDs and captions for everything in Access.
We will also explore how to add your own custom buttons to menus and assign custom functions to those buttons, so a right-click can perform your desired operation. You will also learn how to enhance menu appearance by adding custom pictures or using the built-in button icons, known as Face IDs.
Here's a summary of what we will cover in each lesson:
Lesson 1 continues our ribbon customization work. You will learn how to set up a gallery, which is a type of custom menu on the ribbon. We will then start working with backstage customization, including hiding the print options and most other items on the file menu, except for the stubborn Home menu option which cannot be eliminated.
Lesson 2 focuses on adding your own items to the backstage tab menus. This allows you to introduce your own categories and buttons directly on the File menu.
In lesson 3, I will demonstrate how to create custom Quick Access Toolbars for individual forms or reports. While it is easy to modify the toolbar for the entire database through the built-in options, this lesson shows you how to tailor the toolbar for specific forms.
Lesson 4 covers replacing the use-sys-ribbons table. I will show you how to create your own ribbons table and use Application.LoadCustomUI to load your custom ribbons when the database starts, instead of relying on system tables.
Lesson 5 introduces right-click context menus. We will discuss how to add and customize these pop-up menus, which many of you have expressed an interest in learning about.
Lesson 6 picks up with custom context menus by examining the built-in button IDs. You will learn how to loop through all controls, and we will create a utility form that lets you search for a control by name to find its ID.
Finally, lesson 7 wraps up the context menu section. We will cover how to add custom buttons to your right-click menus, assign action events that run your own functions when clicked, and use Face IDs or your own images for the menu buttons to personalize the appearance.
As a reminder, I am using Access 365 for this tutorial, which is very similar to Access 2021. The 2024 version of Access is not available yet, but should be released later this year.
If you have questions about any of the material in today's class, feel free to post them at the bottom of the lesson page. There is a space to submit your comments or questions. For unrelated topics, you can also visit my Access forum on the website.
You can find a complete video tutorial with step-by-step instructions on everything discussed here on my website at the link below. Live long and prosper, my friends.Topic List Creating custom backstage menus in Access
Hiding print and other options in the backstage
Adding custom items to the backstage tab menu
Creating categories and buttons in the backstage
Setting up custom Quick Access Toolbars for forms
Building your own ribbons table to replace UseSysRibbons
Loading custom ribbons at database startup
Using Application.LoadCustomUI for ribbon loading
Working with right-click context (pop-up) menus
Understanding the CommandBars collection
Looping through controls to find their IDs and captions
Building a tool to search for control IDs and captions
Adding custom buttons to context menus
Assigning custom functions to context menu buttons
Using Face IDs and custom images for menu button icons |
