How to: Change the Position of a Tab on the Ribbon

  • Article

You can change the order of custom tabs on a Ribbon by using the Tab Collection Editor. You can position custom tabs before or after a built-in tab on the Ribbon. A built-in tab is a tab that is already on the Ribbon of a Microsoft Office application. For example, the Data tab is a built-in tab in Excel.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for the following applications: Excel 2007 and Excel 2010; InfoPath 2010; Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010; PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010; Project 2010; Visio 2010; Word 2007 and Word 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

To change the order of tabs on the Ribbon

  1. Select the Ribbon code file (.vb or .cs file) in Solution Explorer.

  2. On the View menu, click Designer.

  3. Right-click the Ribbon Designer, and then click Properties.

  4. In the Properties window, select the Tabs property, and then click the ellipsis button (ASP.NET Mobile Designer ellipse).

    The Tab Collection Editor appears.

  5. In the Tab Collection Editor, in the Members list, select the tab you want to move and click the up or down arrows to change the tab order.

To position a tab before or after a built-in tab on the Ribbon

  1. In the Ribbon Designer, select a custom tab.

  2. In the Properties window, expand the ControlId property.

  3. Make sure that the ControlIdType property is set to Custom.

  4. In the Properties window, expand the Position property.

  5. Set the PositionType property to the appropriate value:

    • BeforeOfficeId positions the group before a specified built-in tab.

    • AfterOfficeId positions the group after a specified built-in tab.

  6. Set the OfficeId property to the control ID of a built-in tab.

    For a list of Office 2010 control IDs, see Office 2010 Help Files: Office Fluent User Interface Control Identifiers.

    For a list of Office 2007 control IDs, see 2007 Office System Document: Lists of Control IDs.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Tab by Using the Ribbon Designer

Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Tab by Using Ribbon XML

Concepts

Ribbon Designer

Ribbon XML

Other Resources

Ribbon Overview

Change History

Date

History

Reason

May 2011

Added a procedure that shows you how to position a custom tab before or after built-in tabs on the Ribbon.

Customer feedback.

March 2012

Clarified that the ControlIDType property of the tab must be set to Custom if you want to position a custom tab.

Customer feedback.