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How do I customize the toolbar/ribbon in Word for Mac 2016? Or, can I customize the toolbar/ribbon?
If not, this should be included.
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Perhaps that means that those of us who do not have a 365 subscription will not be able to amend the ribbon. That's pretty poor given the cost of the software itself.
FWIW - this response is not to my friend Jim Gordon but generally to all who read this thread.
I don't disagree with John's time estimate because I believe he's referring to full parity with all functions and user capabilities across the platforms. For those of us who remember the first version of Office 2007 on the PC and how long it took to get a more "user friendly" method of customizing/designing the ribbon, which was called Office 2010, 2-years seems like a reasonable guess. It also took 2 years in the Visual Studio world to move from raw XML coding methods to a "Visual Designer" approach for ribbon customization... I'm referring to what was available to developers like me in VS-2008 and then VS-2010.
A valid question that appears to be asked often is, "Why can't the code used on the PC for ribbon customization also be used on the Mac?" and the real answer is... that is what is being done but coding changes and testing still need to be made no matter what.
Due to the fact that each platform has a different Operating System, all of the coding that interfaces with the Graphic Card drivers and File I/O drivers of the OS must be changed. On the PC there exists an important Database called the Windows Registry, this is where Office stores among many things all of the User Options (called Preferences on the Mac) and on a Mac the Registry does not exist so Plist files are used instead. But access to them is slower and thus code has to be changed in an attempt to optimize performance. This is just a very small example of the hundreds and maybe thousands of things that have to be checked and modified.
Now comes the process of doing this and there are two ways. The first is to make a copy of all code related to the ribbon in the PC version of all Office applications and give it to a team of programmers who strip out all PC stuff and put in the Mac stuff. The second approach is to work in one copy of the code and make it work on both platforms, which eliminates having to maintain multiple copies of the "same" code. This is generally what the Office Product Team at Microsoft is trying to do. One set of code, or at least as much as can be, handling all platforms... and it would probably be prudent to point out that by platform you have to consider all of them, from Mobile devices to the Desktop.
Commonize (sic) and optimize the code... that's the objective and it takes time because there are most likely hundreds of thousands of lines of code that need to be altered. However, month by month, bit by bit Microsoft is rolling out what is ready at that specific point in time. They have changed their 2-3 year package and delivery schedule to a monthly one of what's ready is released. It's not unlike what other software manufacturers are doing these days and either we consumers will love it or hate it. :-)
My point of sharing the above is only to provide some knowledge and perspective about software product development, which I am qualified to provide. It is not a defense of decisions that have been made by others. I do not work for Microsoft... and I will be offended if anyone subsequently wants to claim otherwise or nit pick any information I have taken the time to share.
Why would I be offended? Generally because illiteracy and ignorance offends me.
As for what can be done now... if you are technically proficient you can modify the Ribbon and here's proof of custom ribbon XML code running on Office 2013 for the PC and Office 2016 for the Mac.
As I said, this is the exact same code, in fact it is the exact same "DOTM" template opening on each platform. It's not perfect, visually you can see differences and a few buttons you can see don't actually work... meaning there are still bugs in the Mac ribbon coding, I have reported them and I am certain they will get fixed.
I'm sharing this because Mac Office 2016 users should be aware there are things they can do right now with ribbon customization. Just understand this is early "beta" code related to ribbon customization, which means you/they will find problems that should be reported. There isn't a "user friendly" interface yet for ribbon customization and right now you have to use a tool that only runs on a PC.
But if you have a critical need to make a custom ribbon button or menu appear, as of the October 2015 update, it can be done and John McGhie mentioned above in his posting the things you need to do and links you should explore. The November 2015 update has fixed a few issues that I saw in the first release and I'm certain over the coming months more issues will be fixed.
Not going to get involved in the interpersonal stuff, but totally agree with May on the other points.
I am really upset that my work has been made a lot harder.
And it doesn't help to know that if I had studied coding or platform development that I would be able to figure out how to customize the toolbar myself. Isn't that what we're paying subscription money for?
And just found another missing feature. I used to be able to select just a single paragraph and get its word count. Great for copy fitting. Now the only word count I can ever get is for the entire document. Or is this another customizable feature I can program myself with my degree in computer science?
Oh good lord...combative? Where on earth are you getting this?
My problem is not with you, or with anyone on this board--or their dog. There is probably some individual (or individuals) in a decision-making position at Microsoft, who determined that this half-baked, stripped-down, and wholly inadequate version of Office for Mac was something they should release as an "upgrade"...and yeah, I'm pretty pissed at them. But as we've been told, those folks probably don't come around here much--so my **** and moaning here isn't targeting anybody who is likely to ever read it.
And thanks for the helpful tip, but I am well aware that this thread is about the ribbon/toolbar controls in the new Mac version of Office--or the lack of them. That's why I came here in the first place, looking for help in finding them. I've created custom toolbars in every new version of Office I've had, for so long that I can't remember when I started doing it. It's such a fundamental function, it never occurred to me that Microsoft would release a version of Office without it. I thought I must just be looking for them in the wrong places. Folks here confirmed that, no, I wasn't missing something--you can't do that anymore in the new version of Mac Office. We're stuck with the standard toolbars that Microsoft provided, full of clutter that I never use, and without easy access to the tools and functions I use all the time. So, I vented here about how I think that was a really, really stupid decision. If that's what you're taking so personally...I have no idea why you would do that, but I'm sorry if it somehow hurt your feelings.
Since you asked, here (again) are my specific issues: I want the capability to customize my Word toolbars (also Excel, but that's less crucial for me because I use it a lot less). I want to be able to remove the stuff I don't use, and replace it with commands and functions that I use all the time--things that now take me a lot more hunting around, a lot more clicking through multiple menus and windows, and a lot more time and annoyance, than they ever used to do with my custom toolbars. I want to be able to do this the way I've always done it, through a relatively simple GUI interface, without having to use a programming language that I have no desire to learn. I am not a programmer, and I shouldn't need to be one. I am--or was--a reasonably proficient user of Word, capable of using many of its more obscure functions and customizations. That used to be enough for my purposes, until Microsoft stopped offering some of the most essential tools I used to depend on.
My one issue with anybody or anything on this board is that I don't think the post that's been designated as The Answer to the original question here, really does that at all. It's informative, and it contains some interesting insights not generally available to most users. It makes some suggestions that are probably helpful to a few people, but totally incomprehensible to me, and most likely to most Office users--even the subset who are savvy enough to have found their way to this board. Like I said: I'm not a programmer, and I shouldn't need to be one. So to me, it doesn't answer the original question. I disagree with the decision someone made to call this question Answered, by that post or any other. That's a difference of opinion. It wasn't a personal attack, on you or anyone else.
You asked if I would like to interact with you about any of this. Well...to be honest, no, not really. I don't think you can fix Office for me. And in your last post you seem pretty upset, and kind of **** and snarky. I really don't know why you've taken my frustrations with Microsoft and Office so personally--they were never directed at you--but you are definitely directing your anger at me here, now. I don't mean to be rude, but honestly, would YOU want to interact with you any further, under those circumstances?
Hi Mary and others who care to comment...
Since my posting was the one that drew your criticism of something... can you please help me understand exactly what it is that I wrote that has gotten you so combative?
I believe you said in a later add-on posting to your first that your problem was not with me or what I wrote, but I'm honestly still struggling with the content of this thread and in particular your prolonged "kicking the dog" approach. What point are your really trying to make?
Would you like to interact with me about what can or cannot be done with Word 2016 for the Mac at this present time regarding automation? If so, please provide specific issues you are facing with the ribbon/toolbar controls, which BTW is the topic of this thread and I will try to help.
If however, you generally just need to strike out in a rant and/or attempted belittlement of Microsoft, please use the Smiley/Frown control on Word's ribbon. Honestly... your comments posted there go directly to the product team at Microsoft.
In other words... this isn't the forum or the thread for prolonged belittlement and ranting about anyone or any thing.