Microsoft Access 2010 Bible

Chapter 29: Customizing Access Ribbons

1025

FIGURE 29.14

An error message thrown by a custom Access ribbon

The Ribbon Hierarchy

The ribbon itself is a fairly complex structure and is hierarchical in nature. At the top level are the

tabs you see along the top of the ribbon. Each tab contains one or more groups, each containing

one or more controls. The ribbon is highly adaptable to your current tasks, so the description that

follows may not be exactly the same as you see on your screen:

l (^) Tabs: The top object in the ribbon hierarchy. You use tabs to separate the most funda-
mental operations into logical groups. For instance, the default Access ribbon contains
four tabs: Home, Create, External Data, and Database Tools.
l Groups: The second highest object in the ribbon hierarchy. Groups contain any of the
number of different types of controls and are used to logically separate operations sup-
ported by a ribbon tab. In Figure 29.15, the Home tab contains six groups: Views,
Clipboard, Sort & Filter, Records, Find, and Text Formatting.
l Controls: In Figure 29.15, notice the variety of controls within each group on the Home
tab. The Views group contains a single control, while the Text Formatting group contains
18 different controls. Normally, the controls within a group are related to one another,
but this is not a hard and fast rule.
FIGURE 29.15
The default Access ribbon
As you design your custom Access ribbons, you should keep the basic ribbon hierarchy in mind.
Microsoft has spent a great deal of time experimenting with and testing the Office ribbon para-
digm, and it works well for a wide variety of applications.