Using Office 2007 UI ribbon .dll file with my project

Question

I have downloaded the official office 2007 UI ribbon .dll, but now what? I am coding in VB.net. I do not know where to place this .dll, and I do not see any additional controls anywhere at all. The readme explains how to license your copy, which I have done.

Now what? I am hoping to magically see the ribbon control in the list of components I can add somewhere, but its just not there....

Is there even a way to use this as a drag-n-drop component with the WYSIWYG Design View?

EDIT: To clarify, my goal is to use the Ribbon in my own work, not to modify the Office ribbon or to develop a plugin for it. I cannot find any free ribbon anywhere, and I am not sure if this .dll I have is what I need.

Answer 1

I'd suggest the following alternative to the Microsoft ribbon:

A Professional Ribbon You Will Use (Now with orb!)

There have been discussions here on SO about the licensing required for use of the Office ribbon.

To begin using, first add a reference to the DLL in your solution:

1. In VS, right click your WinForm project and select Add Reference...
2. On the Add Reference dialog, select the Browse tab and navigate to and select the DLL.
3. Click OK on the Add Reference dialog.

To use the Ribbon check out the tutorial here.

Also, the Ribbon's author opened a CodePlex project for the component here.

Edit: Problems adding controls to the Ribbon.

The instructions found on the Getting Started page worked for me when I last played with the ribbon, but they don't now. Maybe it's the version of Visual Studio I'm using (I believe I was using VS2005 Pro then, now I'm using VS2008 Pro).

In VS 2008 I was able to add controls to the RibbonPanel by using the Panel's Items property. Here's how:

1. Add a Ribbon to your form.
2. Add a Panel to the Ribbon by clicking the 'Add Panel' icon on the Ribbon.
3. Select the Panel you just added and select 'Items' from the Panel's property screen.
4. On the RibbonButton Collection Editor screen click Add (or select a specific control from the Add button's drop down list). Be sure to set your new control's properties on the properties side of this dialog.
5. Click the OK button on the Editor screen.

The component was pretty flaky in the designer:

• Controls added did not appear until I closed the designer and reopened it.
• Controls deleted through the designer did not clean out the code associated with the Ribbon controls (I had to delete all lines associated with the Ribbon controls in the forms .Designer.vb file).

Answer 2

I'd wager that DLL is for authoring plugins that interact with the ribbon. As far as I know, Office 2007's UI is not for you, or anybody outside of MS, to use in our own projects. Unlike the standard controls they ship with visual studio.

There is a WPF version available, however. I don't think we'll see a Windows Forms version from MS available for free.

Answer 3

A quick googling turns out Ribbon UI Control Roundup for Developers , which should cover your needs.

Answer 4

Assuming that you downloaded the WPF Ribbon Preview from CodePlex you will find further documentation here:

A Ribbon Feature Walkthrough presents the features available within the WPF ribbon class library and this Hands-on-Lab will provide you with exercises to get started creating your own ribbon. The examples in these exercises are in C#, but maybe they are still helpful if you want to create your ribbon using VB.Net.