Microsoft Office applications have used the ribbon interface since 2007, guiding users to click on a variety of toolbars and graphical elements grouped by purpose. In Excel, Word, PowerPoint and other Microsoft applications, users may add a launcher for a dialog box to any group of menu options in the ribbon menu. Clicking on a dialog box launcher opens a dialog box related to the choices in the menu group. All that needs to be added is the button ID, the Screentip and the name of an onAction Sub procedure to run when the arrow is clicked.In the spreadsheet application Excel, dialog boxes let users enter information and select options regarding various components of a worksheet. This is a jumble, I agree, but all you really need to understand is the last 4 lines. Using the Custom UI Editor for Microsoft Office, which you can get here, open your document’s ribbon XML The following shows the previous image’s XML layout How this is done is very simple: Edit the XML This form gives access to all of the workbook’s options, including those reprsented by the checkboxes in the same grouping. What does it open? As you might guess from the Screentip, it is the main Options/Preferences form.

There is a Dialog Box Launcher for the Preferences group.

The previous image is from an estimating workbook which I coded. Generally with VBA programming you will have a form whose input is central to the group’s “theme”. The first thing you need is a dialog box which you want to open with the Launcher. They are easy to setup on your own custom Ribbon… First Things First However, I did find those dialog boxes and more.īehind those little diagonal arrows at the lower right of many of the command groups are what Microsoft calls Dialog Box Launchers.

Where was the Font or Page Setup dialog boxes? After all these years of working with the Ribbon, I still have to ask the “Tell me what you want to do?” query box for help. Many items had been resorted into other categories or simply hidden. If you were like me when the Ribbon menu first showed up in Office 2007 I was lost.

What is dialog box launcher