Part IV: Professional Database Development
1046
The CustomUI_Name and CustomUI_XML are extracted from the USysRibbons table:Public Function LoadRibbons(strName As String)
Dim strXML As String
strXML = DLookup(“RibbonXML”, “USysRibbons”, _
“RibbonName= ‘“ & strName & “‘“)
Call Access.Application.LoadCustomUI(strName, strXML)
End FunctionAccess should instantly replace the invalidated ribbon with the ribbon specified by the strName
and strXML values passed to LoadCustomUI.Completely Removing the Access Ribbon
Assume, for a moment, that there are perfectly legitimate reasons why you don’t want to use the
Access ribbons in your applications. Perhaps you’ve developed a set of effective switchboard forms,
or have mimicked the old style toolbars and menus with borderless forms. Or, your applications
are entirely forms-driven and don’t need the flexibility provided by toolbars and ribbons.Here’s how you can completely remove ribbons from the Access interface:- Create a new table called USysRibbons, if you haven’t already done so.
- If creating the USysRibbons table for the first time, add three fields, ID (AutoNumber),
RibbonName (text) and RibbonXML (Memo). - Create a new record with the RibbonName set to Blank.
It doesn’t really matter what you call it.
- Then add the following XML to the RibbonXML column:
<CustomUI xmlns=“http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2006
/01/CustomUI”>
<Ribbon startFromScratch=“true”/>
</CustomUI>- Restart the database.
- Click the File tab and select the Options button in the Backstage.
- Click the Current Database tab and scroll to the Ribbon and Toolbars area.
- In the Ribbon and Toolbars area, set the Ribbon Name to Blank (the same name you
specified for the RibbonName column in Step 3). - Close and re-open the database.
This process sets up a dummy ribbon named Blank that contains no tabs, no groups, and no con-
trols. In effect, you’re telling Access to put up an empty ribbon, which simply removes the ribbon
from the Access user interface.