Microsoft® Excel® 2010 Inside Out

Customizing the Ribbon

When the ribbon was introduced in Office 2007, it was fixed—you couldn’t modify the user interface unless you were conversant in VBA or XML. In Office 2010, the ribbon is open for interpretation; you can freely rearrange command groups; change the order and position of tabs; remove groups; and create custom commands, groups, and tabs. This is very good news for tool geeks. The bad news: you cannot add or delete commands from existing groups, and you cannot delete existing tabs. But this really isn’t much of a problem; a truly dedicated customizer can create a whole new set of tabs and stick them in front, forcing the default tabs off the screen, or simply hide all the default tabs.

Start by right-clicking anywhere on the ...