How do I add custom icons to custom Ribbon tab in Word?

Question

I am trying to add custom icons to a Shared Add-in for Microsoft Word. The Shared Add-in uses XML to add a tab to Word's Ribbon.

I am following the guidance of this document on MSDN: I have followed the steps described in the document for adding the image as a Resource. When I run the installer, and open Word the icons do not show up.

Also, I am getting a Cannot register assembly /file-path/ access denied. Please make sure you are running the application as Administrator. Access to the registry key HKEY_ClASSES_ROOT/RibbonTest.Connect is denied.

There is only one user on my windows install and it is Admin, so I am not sure what this means.

Does anyone know what might be going on?

For reference sake,I am writing the code on Windows 7 in VS Studio 2008 for Word 2007

Answer 1

The various different buttons types require different image sizes. Large buttons use a 32 x 32 pixel image for example.Small buttons work with images starting at 16 x 16.

If an image is too small, it won't show up in the ribbon.

See this MSDN article for more detail. The two attributes you need to keep in mind are strong image and size. Make the size of the image matches the size of the control. There is a table in the MSDN article which should make this more clear.