Darryl Collins
Darryl.Collins at iag.com.au
Sun May 9 18:59:28 CDT 2010
_______________________________________________________________________________________ Note: This e-mail is subject to the disclaimer contained at the bottom of this message. _______________________________________________________________________________________ William, Apologies if I am off target here. I have used both Excel and Access 2003 style custom command bars in Office 2007 (not in 2010 though). They work fine and have the added advantage of working x-platform. That is a user can open your app in either 2003 or 2007 Office and the command bars will work as expected. This is a big advantage over converting them to a ribbon based system using XML, which looks better in Office 2007+ but fails to function at all in Pre 2007 software. In fact in most corporate where I work, the majority of users are still on 2003 with a smattering of (usually annoyed) office 2007 users, thus having command bars that work on both platforms is still critical for me. The downside (and it can be a big one) is any and all custom command bars are now stuffed under the addin tab on the ribbon and the user often needs to be eductated where to find them. You can still turn them on and off as you wish, but you lose the elegance and efficiency of the commandbar appearing when and where it is needed. It appears all right, but it is not visible until the user manually activates the addin tab - booo hisss to MS I say. I guess the best solution would be to get you're your app to recognise what version of XL the user is running and either call a command bar or custom XML ribbon, but right now none of my clients are that interested in paying for that sort of functionality for a handful of users - given that the existing command bars system is well understood by the users, very reliable and fuctions flawlessly. Another downside is you can no longer have the custom toolbars docked where best suits the user. In the past I have had custom command bars float, bottom docked, or even left/right side docked in some applications. Now everything has to be up the top. Should be another large nail in the ribbon's future coffin I say, but what would I know.... I believe that 2010 version of office is meant to address some of these issues, but I think we are still a release or 3 away from getting anywhere near back to the power, flexibility and usefulness we used to have. You are completely correct about screen space. Many folks I know and places I work still have small monitors and are no fans of Office 2007 piggy use screen space. Regards Darryl. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of William Hindman Sent: Sunday, 9 May 2010 12:26 PM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] ...table driven command/menu bar interface needed Doug ...no ...it's the new ...limited ...ribbon customization feature in 2010 that lets you hide the ribbon and show custom minimalist tabbed menus that are "similar" to the old command bars ...aad has an add-in that demonstrates some of what can be done but it doesn't take it very far ...my point is that I can reclaim that screen space in 2010 with a table driven interface, something that was extremely difficult to do in 2007 without leaving your app wide open to users playing with your gui. ...I've found some table driven command bar code for 2003 and once I have it working satisfactorily, I'll port it to 2010 with the intent that the table structure/data be identical and the gui interface as similar as feasible considering that 2010 offers a lot of gui improvements that I want to take advantage of ...just not the damned ribbon. ...I'm wondering when the idiots behind the ribbon fiasco in Office will finally get the fact that a LOT of people DON"T have 2400x1600 screens, including millions of notebook users ...will it be before or after a critical mass decide to move beyond Office? William -------------------------------------------------- From: "Doug Murphy" <dw-murphy at cox.net> Sent: Saturday, May 08, 2010 7:18 PM To: "'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com> Subject: Re: [AccessD] ...table driven command/menu bar interface needed > > William, > > Is this functionality in Access 2010 or is it something you are > developing? > Is there any documentation of the lightweight command bar on M$ web sites? > > Doug > > -----Original Message----- > From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of William Hindman > Sent: Friday, May 07, 2010 2:28 PM > To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving > Subject: [AccessD] ...table driven command/menu bar interface needed > > > ...so I've been experimenting with using a menu bar dropdown gui instead, > especially now that Access2010 lets me ditch the ribbon in favor of a > lightweight command bar menu again ...and it works ...maximizes my screen > space availability and is pretty user/security friendly. > > > -- > AccessD mailing list > AccessD at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com _______________________________________________________________________________________ The information transmitted in this message and its attachments (if any) is intended only for the person or entity to which it is addressed. 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