In Excel 2007, user interface modifications were limited to the Quick Access toolbar. But Excel 2010 lets you customize the Ribbon in many ways. but some users will prefer to make some changes to the Ribbon itself. You can customize the Ribbon in these ways:
- Add a new tab.
- Add a new group to a tab.
- Add commands to a group.
- Remove groups from a tab.
- Remove commands from custom groups.
- Change the order of the tabs.
- Change the order of the groups within a tab.
- Change the name of a tab.
- Change the name of a group.
- Reset the Ribbon to remove all customizations.
That’s a fairly comprehensive list of customization options, but there are some actions that you cannot do:
- You cannot remove built-in tabs — but you can hide them.
- You cannot add commands to built-in groups.
- You cannot remove commands from built-in groups.
- You cannot change the order of commands in a built-in group.
Note: Unfortunately, you can’t customize the Ribbon (or Quick Access toolbar) by using VBA macros. However, developers can write RibbonX code and store it in workbook files. When the file is open, the Ribbon is modified to display new commands. Writing RibbonX is relatively complicated and is the subject of several complete books.
Customizing the Ribbon is done in the Customize Ribbon panel of the Excel Options dialog box. The quickest way to display this dialog box is to right-click anywhere in the Ribbon and choose Customize The Ribbon.
Customizing the Ribbon is very similar to customizing the Quick Access toolbar, The only difference is that you need to decide where to put the command within the Ribbon. The general procedure is
1. Use the drop-down list on the left (labeled Choose Command From) to display various groups of commands.
2. Locate the command in the list box on the left and select it.
3. Use the drop-down list on the right (labeled Customize The Ribbon) to choose a group of tabs.
Main Tabs refer to the tabs that are always visible; Tool Tabs refer to the contextual tabs that appear when a particular object is selected.
4. In the list box on the right, select the tab and the group where you would like to put the command. You’ll need to click the “plus sign” controls to expand the hierarchical lists. Remember that you cannot add commands to built-in groups, so you might need to use the New Tab or New Group button to add a tab or group.
5. Click the Add button to add the selected command from the left to the group on the right.