pschmid.net: Putting You & I back into Office 2007's Ribbon UI http://pschmid.net/blog Customize and Extend Microsoft Office 2007 Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:36:47 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.5 en PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUihttp://feedburner.google.comSubscribe with My Yahoo!Subscribe with NewsGatorSubscribe with My AOLSubscribe with BloglinesSubscribe with NetvibesSubscribe with GoogleSubscribe with PageflakesSubscribe with Live.com Outlook 2010: 7+ Home tabs http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/C2FQKiRHkh0/153 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/08/02/153#comments Sun, 02 Aug 2009 11:36:47 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2010 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/08/02/153 Outlook 2010 has 7+ tabs labeled Home. Let me introduce them to you (none of them were taken with an Exchange account; apologies for the varying screen resolutions):

Mail

HomeMail

Mail - IMAP

Note: Quick Steps don’t show in the technical preview for IMAP due to a bug
HomeMailIMAP

Mail - RSS

mailrss.png

Calendar

Calendar

Calendar - List view

CalendarList

Contacts

Contacts

Tasks

Tasks

Notes

Notes

Journal

Journal

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/08/02/153/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/08/02/153 Computer woes http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/44tJs7Ay3Pk/143 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/07/28/143#comments Tue, 28 Jul 2009 12:11:16 +0000 Patrick Schmid Uncategorized Administrative http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/07/28/143 Part of the reason why it has been quiet on the RibbonCustomizer front is that the mainboard of my main computer (a good old Gigabyte mainboard with an AMD 64) died after years of faithful service. Unfortunately, replacing my computer with a brand-new Core i7 based machine became a nightmare on its own.

Used to the American Newegg, I had to find out that its most similar German equivalent Alternate symbolizes the “Servicewüste” (service desert) Germany has often been described as. My mistake was that I ordered correctly as the company I am, instead of as a consumer, as I in retrospect should have done with that online seller of computer hardware: As a consumer ordering from an online seller in Germany, one enjoys a legal right of return for any reason (including not liking it/not wanting it anymore) within 2 weeks of receiving it. On the other hand, the German lawmaker assumed that corporations are more informed market participants than consumers and hence did not grant them a similar right. However, this has not stopped many companies from extending a similar right to corporate customers, even for purchases not made online. Alternate, however, is the exception with its call center personnel obviously trained on blaming the German lawmaker for not extending this right to corporations, instead of admitting that its their corporate policy of offering only the legally required minimum.

What happened to me? I ordered the individual parts for a new computer, built it together, turned it on and watched in horror as nothing would boot. More than a week of troubleshooting later, and at some point enough parts here for 3 new computers (all purchased either as consumer or from local companies with a better return policy), I finally had the new system booting and sent the faulty combination of parts back to Alternate. As it looks right now, I’ll be receiving working (and by now totally unnecessary) replacement parts back instead of being refunded my money.

Lessons learnt for me?

  1. Never order from Alternate again
  2. If ordering online, make sure the online seller offers an acceptable return policy to corporations and, if not, order as consumer and deal with the accounting implications of that later

The other part of why it has been quiet with RibbonCustomizer is that I have been spending time looking at the Office 2010 beta. As it has a built-in ribbon customization feature, I don’t know yet what exactly RibbonCustomizer’s support of Office 2010 will be. If you have any suggestions (and have used the beta), please leave me a comment!

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/07/28/143/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/07/28/143 Another beta update http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/AQHtMca8JKU/142 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/05/04/142#comments Mon, 04 May 2009 15:57:26 +0000 Patrick Schmid Uncategorized Office 2007 Office 2007 Users RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/05/04/142 Hallo everybody,

going forward, I’ll be aiming to release a new beta build every other Monday.

Today I posted a new beta build that comes with a major visual change: RibbonCustomizer will now adapt its look to your current Office 2007 color scheme. I also took a look at the automatic update feature and this should be working now.

If you encounter any bugs or annoyances, please post them in this forum thread. This will help me tremendously in getting a new stable release up and running. One to finally replace the outdated 1.1 currently available.

On my roadmap for the next stable release is adding one last feature (the ability to load a package, currently you can only save one), increasing the performance of the add-in (especially the time it takes to open the Customize Ribbon dialog), fully translating it into German, updating the documentation and fixing any bugs I encounter or hear about from you.

Thanks for your help!

Patrick

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/05/04/142/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/05/04/142 RibbonCustomizer Beta updated http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/qq3TP3LoTu0/141 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/26/141#comments Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:13:43 +0000 Patrick Schmid Uncategorized http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/26/141 Hello everyone,

I just posted a new beta version of RibbonCustomizer (V1.2). That version should fix the bug that a lot of you are experiencing with RibbonCustomizer not working.

It would be great, if you can download and install it. Please give me feedback, whether the add-in works for you again afterwards or not.

Thanks,

Patrick Schmid

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/26/141/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/26/141 RibbonCustomizer is not dead http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/SXqfW0gLNLY/140 http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/21/140#comments Tue, 21 Apr 2009 16:54:44 +0000 Patrick Schmid Uncategorized http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/21/140 Hello everybody,

contrary to what it looks like and contrary towards my habit of not answering a lot of your emails, RibbonCustomizer is not dead. My problem is that I am short of time due to my full-time job as a management consultant.

I hear all your concerns though and especially the ones related to the beta version of the add-in not working at all for some of you. That particular issue I am trying to resolve, but unfortunately it will take some time as it is difficult to debug.

Thank you for being my customers and I apologize for my prolonged absence.

Patrick Schmid

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/21/140/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2009/04/21/140 False positive virus alert with RibbonCustomizer setup program http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/_Ox5mWzalIs/139 http://pschmid.net/blog/2008/08/08/139#comments Fri, 08 Aug 2008 15:34:19 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2008/08/08/139 I posted earlier that the setup program of RibbonCustomizer triggered a virus alert with some virus scanners (see report). Kaspersky, one of the affected virus scanners, just informed me that it was a false positive virus alert and that the problem will be fixed as soon as possible. I will keep updating this post as I receive more replys from other anti-virus vendors. RibbonCustomizer will be available again for download now.

Virus scanner that trigger false alerts:

I want to assure all of you that all files distributed here are always thoroughly checked for viruses before being made available.

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2008/08/08/139/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2008/08/08/139 RibbonCustomizer bug fixes http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/X2o5ztVt4qo/138 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/28/138#comments Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:56:51 +0000 Patrick Schmid RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/28/138 I just posted a new RibbonCustomizer release with lots of bug fixes related to custom image handling.

Unfortunately, I had to change the image handling code substantially. This new release cannot read images created with the previous one. It should simply not load them and you can add them manually again. If you encounter problems with this, please use the support options.

Download the latest beta

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/28/138/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/28/138 RibbonCustomizer - Use custom images http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/cIWNVfbxoSQ/137 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/02/137#comments Wed, 03 Oct 2007 02:56:02 +0000 Patrick Schmid RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/02/137 The newest beta version of RibbonCustomizer lets you now use your own custom images as icons on the Ribbon. The only limitation is that you cannot assign custom images to Microsoft commands. But you can assign your own images to all your macro buttons.

Important warning: Files generated with the newest beta release cannot be read by any older release. Any older release will most likely crash when trying to read a file with a custom image in it. Therefore, upgrade all your copies to the newest beta release, if you plan on using your own images.

Download the latest beta release now. 

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/02/137/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/02/137 MVP again http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/sDt-E_j3-Wk/136 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/01/136#comments Mon, 01 Oct 2007 23:37:17 +0000 Patrick Schmid Administrative http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/01/136 I just got renewed as Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for OneNote for another year. :)
Due to my new job, I haven’t been very active recently. Hopefully, I will have more time going forward to be more active again!

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/01/136/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/10/01/136 RibbonCustomizer - New beta build http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/SC6UTGjeWwY/135 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/09/23/135#comments Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:03:57 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/09/23/135 It has been a long time since I posted a new build of RibbonCustomizer. My new job has been keeping me very busy. I just didn’t have time to work on the add-in. Things have settled down a bit and I fixed a bunch of bugs in the add-in.

You can get the latest beta build as usual from http://pschmid.net/office2007/ribboncustomizer/betaprogram.php

You can also look forward to new features in the not too distant future…

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/09/23/135/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/09/23/135 RibbonCustomizer: pick your own icons! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/iEIMIbDUyUw/134 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/22/134#comments Sun, 22 Jul 2007 23:17:18 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/22/134 It has been a while since I released an new beta build of RibbonCustomizer. But, here is one :)

A lot of bug fixes went into this release, but the most notable change is the ability to pick your own icons. You can now use any Office 2007 icon for your macro buttons, or simply change the icon of any Office 2007 control you are using in your own group.

Download the new beta build.

P.S.: You cannot use your own custom icon in this build. I will provide that feature as well, but I wanted to just post this build as is, because it has been a while since there was a new build.

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/22/134/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/22/134 imageMso list http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/23SdSw-zV-w/133 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/17/133#comments Tue, 17 Jul 2007 05:23:00 +0000 Patrick Schmid RibbonX http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/17/133 A developer can use Office 2007 icons in RibbonX via the imageMso attribute. To do so, she needs to only specify the idMso of the control which has the desired icon. Unfortunately, this is not as easy as it sounds, because any idMso available in any of the five ribbon applications (Access, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint and Word) can be used irrespective of the application. That means, an idMso from an Excel command can be used in Word as imageMso.

To make this easier, I created a unique imageMso list. This list was created by first finding all unique idMso’s across all ribbons (some 3,400 idMso’s), and then removing all the idMso’s that didn’t have their own icons, as well as all duplicates. The list differentiates between unique 16×16 and 32×32 icons, as well as unique pairs of 16×16 and 32×32 icons.

Download the imageMso list (Excel 2007 format).

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/17/133/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/17/133 Finding your way around the Office 2007 Ribbon http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/Du4hQ8Ie_ys/132 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/02/132#comments Mon, 02 Jul 2007 20:27:40 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 Office 2007 Users http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/02/132 Microsoft has made available to sets of aids for helping users find their way around the Office 2007 Ribbon. The first set are the Online command reference guides. These are Flash applications that will show you the 2003 UI, allow you to click on the command you are looking for, and then show you where to find that particular command in Office 2007. You can find them using the follow links. There is no guide for Access.

Excel: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel/HA101491511033.aspx

Outlook: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA102221621033.aspx

PowerPoint: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/powerpoint/HA101490761033.aspx

Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100744321033.aspx

If you prefer a tabular form showing you where which 2003 command can be found in 2007, you can find buried in Help the links to the Ribbon mapping workbooks. Those Excel files are comprehensive and can be printed (they are not the smallest one either, the Word one is e.g. 3 MB):

Access: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128601033.aspx

Excel: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128621033.aspx

Outlook: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128631033.aspx

PowerPoint: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128641033.aspx

Word: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/TC102128591033.aspx

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/02/132/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/07/02/132 RibbonCustomizer gets its own logo and icons! http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/b_54yK71_II/131 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/22/131#comments Fri, 22 Jun 2007 11:49:15 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/22/131 RibbonCustomizer has been using an icon from Microsoft Office (you might have recognized it as the icon used for Office button, Prepare). Not anymore! RibbonCustomizer has now its own logo and icons designed by Terberg Design.
Here is a preview of the logo:

RibbonCustomizer preview logo big

Watch for the new logo and the icons on this website and upcoming beta versions soon!

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/22/131/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/22/131 RibbonCustomizer: Added support for menus, boxes and button groups http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/PatrickSchmidPuttingYouIBackIntoOffice2007sUi/~3/V21M8onv9Xc/130 http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/17/130#comments Mon, 18 Jun 2007 01:28:41 +0000 Patrick Schmid Office 2007 Office 2007 Users RibbonCustomizer http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/17/130 I just posted another beta version of RibbonCustomizer V1.2. This one has added support to create the following items:

  • menu
  • box
  • buttonGroup

If you don’t know what these RibbonX elements do, look at the Classic UI tabs. The Classic UI tabs are three rows of item. Each row is a separate box. The first row is only menus, while the second and third row contain buttons grouped together in button groups.

To add these items to your customizations, look in the same Custom Item list that you can find macros under.

Get the newest beta.

]]> http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/17/130/feed/ http://pschmid.net/blog/2007/06/17/130