Distributing Custom toolbars (Word 2000)

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Richard Gadsden - 15 Feb 2005 15:25 GMT

I'm trying to distribute custom toolbars to a large population of users
(several hundred).

These custom toolbars include customised replacements for the Standard
and Formatting toolbars - my experience is that customising built-in
toolbars is a bad idea as they tend to get reset to defaults too easily.

What I've been doing is using a macro to copy customised toolbars into
the users' normal.dot.

The more obvious way of distributing a custom toolbar is to copy a
toolbar file into the startup folder (either the user or the application
startup). However, toolbars that are in a startup template are not
available until a document is open - and the standard build on the
machines has a /n on the shortcut to Word.

However, I've encountered a problem when trying to distribute an update
to the toolbars in Word: the macro does an Application.OrganizerCopy of
the new toolbar into the normal.dot template and you can see the new
toolbar just fine, but as soon as you close Word and reopen it, the old
version of the toolbar reappears. Changes to normal.dot are being
saved, so it isn't that.

The relevant line of code is:

Application.OrganizerCopy Source:=strToolbarFileName,
Destination:=strNormalFileName, _
Name:=strToolbarName,
Object:=wdOrganizerObjectCommandBars

I think I'm going to have to go to a solution with the toolbars in a
startup template instead of the normal.dot unless anyone comes up with a
good alternative.

Any thoughts?

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Richard Gadsden
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire

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Graham Mayor - 15 Feb 2005 15:56 GMT

Frankly, what standard toolbars a user chooses to display is none of your
business. Normal.dot is intended to hold the user's personal settings, not
yours.

However, if you wish to add functionality, or provide enhanced functions for
particular documents, then put the toolbars and associated macros required
in the *document* templates and make those document templates available to
the users either by a shared workgroup folder or distribution in
non-networked systems.

For functions required for *all* documents use a global add-in. This will
provide you with the control you need over matters that the users should not
be tampering with, whilst allowing users to maintain their own workspaces.

Either way, leave normal.dot to the users.

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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

> I'm trying to distribute custom toolbars to a large population of
> users (several hundred).
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>
> Any thoughts?

Reply to this Message

Richard Gadsden - 15 Feb 2005 17:22 GMT

> Frankly, what standard toolbars a user chooses to display is none of your
> business. Normal.dot is intended to hold the user's personal settings, not
> yours.

I agree that normal.dot is intended to be personalised, which is why I
originally wanted to simply distribute a .dot file to the startup
(addins) folder with the customised toolbars for the users, many of them
being ways to access functionality in macros.

However, the problem with that is that the macros include ones for
opening standard documents and accessing templates, which means that
users need these buttons before they have any files open - and the
toolbars do not appear to be available until Word has opened a file.
Which is why I was putting them in normal.dot in the first place!

> However, if you wish to add functionality, or provide enhanced functions for
> particular documents, then put the toolbars and associated macros required
> in the *document* templates and make those document templates available to
> the users either by a shared workgroup folder or distribution in
> non-networked systems.

This I already do.

> For functions required for *all* documents use a global add-in. This will
> provide you with the control you need over matters that the users should not
> be tampering with, whilst allowing users to maintain their own workspaces.

Yes, the macros are already in there - the only customisation I do to
normal.dot is to add some additional toolbars to it, because the
toolbars are not visible when needed otherwise. Which is why I was
asking for suggestions for a better way of doing it!

> Either way, leave normal.dot to the users.

Give or take corporate house style, I agree.

Signature

Richard Gadsden
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire

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Graham Mayor - 15 Feb 2005 17:54 GMT

You can force the toolbars to display using an autoexec macro in your add-in
e.g.

Sub AutoExec()
CommandBars("Toolbar Name").Visible = True
End Sub

This will not stop the user from turning it off, but it will be there to
start with.

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<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>
Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com
Word MVP web site http://word.mvps.org
<>>< ><<> ><<> <>>< ><<> <>>< <>><<>

>> Frankly, what standard toolbars a user chooses to display is none of
>> your business. Normal.dot is intended to hold the user's personal
[quoted text clipped - 32 lines]
>
> Give or take corporate house style, I agree.

Reply to this Message

Richard Gadsden - 10 Mar 2005 13:16 GMT

> You can force the toolbars to display using an autoexec macro in your add-in
> e.g.
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> This will not stop the user from turning it off, but it will be there to
> start with.

Do you actually read my messages?

The toolbar isn't there until you open a document, unless the toolbar is
in normal.dot.

Seriously. Try this.

Create a toolbar.

Save it in a template in your startup folder (c:\program Files\Microsoft
Office\Office\Startup on a default install).

Then create the AutoExec macro above and save it in the same template.

Then start word with a /n.

Watch the error message!

Then right-click your toolbar and the new toolbar will not be in the
list of available toolbars that pops up.

Create a new (blank) document. The toolbar will appear, as if by magic.

The only exception is if you stuff the toolbar into normal.dot...

Signature

Richard Gadsden
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire

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Charles Kenyon - 09 Mar 2005 20:31 GMT

I would use a custom global template that would go in each user's Word
startup folder. See http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for
step-by-step instructions.

Charles Kenyon

> I'm trying to distribute custom toolbars to a large population of users
> (several hundred).
[quoted text clipped - 31 lines]
>
> Any thoughts?

Reply to this Message

Richard Gadsden - 10 Mar 2005 13:17 GMT

>>What I've been doing is using a macro to copy customised toolbars into the
>>users' normal.dot.
[quoted text clipped - 8 lines]
> startup folder. See http://addbalance.com/word/movetotemplate.htm for
> step-by-step instructions.

Yeah, that's what I ended up doing. The problem with it is in the line
above that starts with "However": the /n on the shortcut means that Word
opens up without a document open, and that creates a further problem in
that the toolbar is not available (unless in normal.dot) until a
document is opened.

NB, by "not available" I mean "not a member of the CommandBars collection".

Signature

Richard Gadsden
"I disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death
your right to say it" - Attributed to Voltaire

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Charles Kenyon - 14 Mar 2005 18:33 GMT

Sorry. On my machine the /n switch doesn't prevent the opening of a new
document. Not sure why.

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Charles Kenyon

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Intermediate User's Guide to Microsoft Word (supplemented version of
Microsoft's Legal Users' Guide) http://addbalance.com/usersguide

See also the MVP FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/word which is awesome!
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>>>What I've been doing is using a macro to copy customised toolbars into
>>>the users' normal.dot.
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
> NB, by "not available" I mean "not a member of the CommandBars
> collection".

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