Ribbon Control
- 5 minutes to read
This topic describes the features available in our Ribbon control implementation. Click the links below to jump to the corresponding section.
Tabbed Layout;
Ribbon Styles;
Paint Styles;
Contextual Tabs;
Keyboard Access;
ScreenTips;
Galleries;
Fading Animation;
Help Button.
Tabbed Layout
The Ribbon combines commands in a tabbed format providing end-users with quick and easy access to them. It has three hierarchy levels:
Tab – combines tab groups with common functionality;
Tab group – contains related bar items;
Bar item – represents a command.
The Ribbon control (
) is located on the Component Palette’s ExpressBars page. When dropped onto a form, it’s automatically docked to the top of this form.
One of the Ribbon’s key features is its flexible layout. When the Ribbon is horizontally resized, it tries to keep its entire content visible on-screen. To accomplish this, it re-arranges elements, collapses or expands tab groups and changes the element representation style (from large images with a caption to small images). You can control these operations using the TdxRibbonTabGroup.Restriction, TdxRibbonTabGroup.CanCollapse, and TdxBarItemLink.ViewLevels properties.
Ribbon Styles
The following Ribbon styles are available:
Office 2019 Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2019, and link the TdxRibbonBackstageView component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property. You can animate tab activation and customize the backstage tabs’ appearance settings. For this Ribbon style, we recommend that you disable Windows Aero effects for the Ribbon form. To accomplish this, handle the form’s OnCreate event and add the “DisableAero := True;” line to the event handler.
Office 2016 Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2016, and link the TdxRibbonBackstageView component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property. For this Ribbon style, we recommend that you disable Windows Aero effects for the Ribbon form. To accomplish this, handle the form’s OnCreate event and add the “DisableAero := True;” line to the event handler.
Office 2016 Tablet Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2016Tablet, and link the TdxRibbonBackstageView component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property. For this Ribbon style, we recommend that you disable Windows Aero effects for the Ribbon form. To accomplish this, handle the form’s OnCreate event and add the “DisableAero := True;” line to the event handler. We also recommend that you enable the Touch mode for this Ribbon style to more closely emulate the Microsoft Office Tablet Ribbon UI and improve the user experience on touch-enabled devices.
Office 2013 Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2013, and link the TdxRibbonBackstageView component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property. For this Ribbon style, we recommend that you disable Windows Aero effects for the Ribbon form. To accomplish this, handle the form’s OnCreate event and add the “DisableAero := True;” line to the event handler.
Office 2010 Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2010, and link the TdxRibbonBackstageView component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property.
Windows Scenic Ribbon (Office 2010 variation). To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2010, and link the TdxBarApplicationMenu component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property.
Office 2007 Ribbon. To apply this style, set the Ribbon’s Style property to rs2007, and link the TdxBarApplicationMenu component (
) to the Ribbon’s ApplicationButton.Menu property.
You can emphasize the appearance of Office 2019, Office 2016, Office 2016 Tablet, Office 2013, Office 2010, and Windows Scenic Ribbon style controls with color accents via the Ribbon control’s ColorSchemeAccent property.
Paint Styles
Office 2019 Ribbon. For this style, our Ribbon implementation provides four built-in paint styles available in Microsoft Office – Colorful, White, DarkGray, and Black.
Office 2016 Ribbon. For this style, our Ribbon implementation provides five built-in paint styles available in Microsoft Office – Colorful, White, LightGray, MediumGray, and DarkGray.
Office 2016 Tablet Ribbon. For this style, our Ribbon implementation provides one built-in paint style available in Microsoft Office – Colorful.
Office 2013 Ribbon. For this style, we provide the White, LightGray, and DarkGray built-in paint styles.
Office 2010 Ribbon, Office 2007 Ribbon, and Windows Scenic. For these styles, we provide the Blue, Black, and Silver built-in paint styles.
ExpressSkins. If skins from the ExpressSkins Library are used in an application, these skins can also be applied to the Ribbon.
Use the Ribbon’s ColorSchemeName property to specify either built-in or external styles.
Traditional painting schemes (Standard, Flat, UltraFlat, Office 2003 and Windows XP theme) are not supported in the Ribbon.
Contextual Tabs
The Ribbon allows you to display contextual tabs, based on the current application context. You can explicitly set the current context in response to end-user actions, for example, when they select an object.
Keyboard Access
The Ribbon provides quick keyboard access to its elements by means of KeyTips.
ScreenTips
The Ribbon allows you to display explanatory information on its elements via ScreenTips.
Galleries
Galleries allow you to display commands with a result-oriented interface.
Fading Animation
Our Ribbon implementation supports built-in fading animation effects for the following Ribbon elements:
To enable fading animation effects within your application, add the dxFading unit to the ‘uses’ clause and use the dxFader.State property. You can customize fading animation options of Ribbon elements via the Ribbon control’s OptionsFading property sets.
Help Button
You may opt to display a Help button which end-users can click to access your application’s help system.
