Creating and Customizing ToolBars

 

Introduction.  When creating forms or enhancements for use in spreadsheets it is often the case that you would like to modify or create toolbars or menus.  In general, toolbars are considered a bit nicer since they only require one mouse move and click to actuate the command.  Thus they are usually reserved for very frequently used commands since they occupy more prominent positions on a user interface.  Menus require a minimum of two mouse moves and clicks since you must at least select a menu and then an item in the menu if not another submenu.  But either way they can improve accessibility to newly developed or pre-existing features.  In this webpage we will focus on toolbars.

In general, Microsoft has created a class of objects called the CommandBar object.  Within this class of objects there are three major types of command bars described in the following table.

 

Type Description
Toolbar This bar can either float or be docked.  It contains one or more command buttons, click to execute controls.  These buttons are usually square with some representative icon.
Menu bar These are built in and almost always appear near the top towards the left of a form or window.  For example, in Excel there is a Worksheet Menu Bar that appears by default in all spreadsheets.
Shortcut/Popup Menu When you right click an object this is the object dependent menu that pops up.

 

There are a variety of ways that a developer can modify toolbars in Excel.
  • Remove command buttons from built-in toolbars.
  • Add command buttons to built-in toolbars.
  • Create new toolbars.
  • Change the function of built-in toolbar command buttons.
  • Change the icon that appears on a toolbar command button.

You can perform customizations either through VBA code or use the exiting menu options of click on the View menu » select the Toolbars item » then select the Customize item in the popup submenu that appears.

Developing a Macro Toolbar.  We have developed a few macros in class and in homework.  It could definitely be nice to have these on a toolbar instead of having to remember the shortcut key or go through the menus and select the macro.  In this webpage we will just go through developing a custom toolbar and adding a button with an image for the Income Statement macro we developed earlier in the semester.  It is likely you can't even remember what the shortcut key was even though I tried to make it at least somewhat mnemonic.

You want to work through the following steps.

  1. Open a workbook.
  2. Click on the View menu.
  3. Click on the Toolbars item.
  4. Select the Customize item at the bottom of the submenu that appears.

Now you should see a dialogue form like the following.

 

 

  1. Now you should click on the New... command button to create your own toolbar.  If you wanted to work on one of the existing toolbars just select it.
  2. Enter MyMacros in for the Toolbar Name: so that it looks like the following.

 

 

  1. Click on OK so that you get a new entry in the list box in the dialogue.
  2. Notice that you get a new little toolbar near the top of your dialogue form.  Drag it up and place it next to your other toolbars so that you get the following.

 

 

  1. Click on the Commands tab in the customization dialogue to get the following image.
  2. Scroll through the list box to get to Macros and highlight it.
  3. Select the Custom Button with the Happy Face.

The dialogue should look like the following.

 

  1. Drag the Happy Face up onto the blank new custom toolbar to get the following image.

 

If you find these happy faces as obnoxious as I do you will be more than ready to get rid of this.  Don't worry, it can happen none too quickly as far as I'm concerned.
  1. Now the Modify Selection command button becomes enabled.  Click it to get the following popup menu.

 

Now you should get the following dialogue.
  1. Select the IncomeStatementDev macro.

 

 

  1. Click on the OK button.
  2. Now you should click on Close to close the Toolbar Customization dialogue form.
  3. Now you should click on the Happy Face to see that it gives you the Azulike Income Statement.

Now we want to change the icon to something more palatable.

  1. Right click the Happy Face icon to bring up the usual popup menu.
  2. Select the Customize item.
  3. Again right click the Happy Face on the toolbar to bring up another popup menu shown below.
  4. Select the Change Button Image item to bring up the following images to select.

 

 

You can use this to select an icon.  If you don't want to use one of these icons or if you want to modify one of them
  1. Select the icon you want to use or modify.  I chose the coffee cup.
  2. Right click the new icon image in your toolbar.
  3. Click on Edit Button Image on the popup menu.

You should get the following icon editor.  I have already made the modifications that I wanted by putting a block I and S on top of the image.  Each of the little boxes corresponds to a bit in the image that will appear on the screen.

 

 

While hardly a very interesting improvement it gives you some sense of how to modify an existing image.

Remember, to make sure a particular toolbar appears or doesn't appear in a workbook you may have to go through the View » Toolbars sequence in the menus.

While there are many other things you can do with toolbars, this should more than suffice for most situations.  Now we will move on to customization of menus in the next webpage.