Access.2007.VBA.Bibl..

A

s a power user or developer, you may be used to manually customiz-
ing the Access toolbars and menus, removing controls you don’t
need, moving others to more convenient locations, and in general
reorganizing the toolbars and menus just as you prefer, and you may have
written functions to run from custom toolbar buttons or menu commands. If
you expect to continue these practices in Access 2007, you’re in for a shock.

The new Office 2007 Ribbon is a major interface change for Access (as well
as the other Office applications), and it requires a major change in program-
ming techniques for customizing the Access interface. Instead of working
with the CommandBars collection to create menus and toolbars, or add com-
mands to the standard ones, you customize the Ribbon with XML code
stored in a table, working with tabs and groups instead of menus and tool-
bars (although the Ribbon does include one menu — the Office menu — and
one toolbar — the Quick Access Toolbar).

For other Office applications, such as Word and Excel, Ribbon customization
requires creating and loading a separate XML document, but in Access, you
have a much more convenient option: just create a table containing the XML
code for creating the Ribbon, load it automatically by closing and reopening
the database, and then select the Ribbon you want to use from the Access
Options screen. After one more closing and reopening of the database, your
Ribbon customizations will appear.

IN THIS CHAPTER

Customizing the Ribbon in an

Access database

Customizing the Ribbon with an

Access add-in

Tools for working with XML

code

Customizing the Ribbon

with XML in Access

Databases and Add-ins