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# Building Ribbon Interfaces in Code
- URL: https://nolongerset.com/building-ribbons-announcement/
- Published: 2022-05-27T03:37:15.000Z
- Updated: 2026-05-08T12:57:23.000Z
- Description: Join me online on Wednesday, July 6, for my presentation "Building Ribbon Interfaces in Code" to the Access Europe user group.
- Author: Mike Wolfe
- Tags: Announcement, #Import 2026-05-20 02:59

It’s hard to believe that the ribbon replaced command bars in Microsoft Office more than 15 years ago. 

The ribbon allows you to build dynamic, responsive, and context-sensitive user interfaces. But with that power comes great ~~responsibility~~ complexity. Even after a decade and a half, **Microsoft still has not provided a built-in tool** for creating and editing custom ribbons.

In this talk, I will demonstrate a VBA-based solution to create custom ribbons. All the complexity is encapsulated in two modules that will be provided. These modules will let you build a full-featured custom ribbon with only a single line of code per ribbon button.

Here are some of the topics we’ll cover:

- Using code to generate valid ribbon XML
- How to load a custom ribbon at startup
- Using built-in images for buttons
- Using custom images for buttons (and a great resource for finding professional button images)
- Creating several types of ribbon controls:  
• Buttons  
• Dropdowns  
• ComboBoxes  
• Gallery controls
- Making ribbon buttons enabled/disabled or visible/invisible based on the current user
- Calling custom functions from the ribbon

## Session Details - Access Europe

The meeting will take place via Zoom on **July 6, 2022, at 1 PM Eastern** (6 PM UK time, 10 AM US Pacific). The [Access Europe event page](https://accessusergroups.org/europe/event/access-europe-2022-07-06/) has all the remote connection details.

DevCon Vienna presenters, Colin Riddington and Alessandro Grimaldi, will be hosting. The [Access Europe user group](https://accessusergroups.org/europe/) meets the first Wednesday of each month, from 18:00 - 19:00 UK time (1 PM Eastern, 10 AM Pacific).

### External references

[Access Europe – Mike Wolfe (Building Ribbon Interfaces in Code) – Europe – AccessUserGroups.org![](https://accessusergroups.org/europe/wp-content/themes/access-user-groups/img/apple-touch-icon.png)![](http://accessusergroups.org/europe/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2022/05/Mike-Profile-Photo-2021-300x300.jpg)](https://accessusergroups.org/europe/event/access-europe-2022-07-06/)

*Image by [Alexander Lesnitsky](https://pixabay.com/users/alles-2597842/?utm%5Fsource=link-attribution&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=image&utm%5Fcontent=1477305) from [Pixabay](https://pixabay.com/?utm%5Fsource=link-attribution&utm%5Fmedium=referral&utm%5Fcampaign=image&utm%5Fcontent=1477305)*