How to: Create Office Toolbars Programmatically

  • Article

Applies to

The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office.

Project type

  • Document-level projects

  • Application-level projects

Microsoft Office version

  • Microsoft Office 2003

For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

This example creates a toolbar called Test in Microsoft Office Word 2003. It appears near the middle of the document and contains two buttons. When a button is clicked, a message box appears. For an example of how to customize the user interface in Microsoft Office Excel 2003, see How to: Create Office Menus Programmatically.

Add the following code to the ThisDocument class.

Note

Declare your command bar variables at the class level instead of inside the method where they are called. This ensures that the command bar variables will remain in scope as long as the application is running. Otherwise, the item is removed by garbage collection and your event handler code does not run.

Example

' Create the command bar variables at the class level. 
Dim commandBar As Office.CommandBar
Dim firstButton As Office.CommandBarButton
Dim secondButton As Office.CommandBarButton


Private Sub ThisDocument_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
    Handles Me.Startup

    AddToolbar()
End Sub 


Private Sub AddToolbar()

    Try
        commandBar = Me.CommandBars("Test")
    Catch ex As ArgumentException
        ' Toolbar named Test does not exist so we should create it. 
    End Try 

    If commandBar Is Nothing Then
        commandBar = Application.CommandBars.Add("Test", 1, False, True)
    End If 

    Try 
        ' Add a button to the command bar and create an event handler.
        firstButton = CType(commandBar.Controls.Add(1), Office.CommandBarButton)

        firstButton.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption
        firstButton.Caption = "button 1"
        firstButton.Tag = "button1" 
        AddHandler firstButton.Click, AddressOf ButtonClick

        ' Add a second button to the command bar and create an event handler.
        secondButton = CType(commandBar.Controls.Add(1), Office.CommandBarButton)

        secondButton.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption
        secondButton.Caption = "button 2"
        secondButton.Tag = "button2" 
        AddHandler secondButton.Click, AddressOf ButtonClick

        commandBar.Visible = True 

    Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message)
    End Try 
End Sub 


' Handles the event when a button on the new toolbar is clicked. 
Private Sub ButtonClick(ByVal ctrl As Office.CommandBarButton, ByRef Cancel As Boolean)

    MsgBox("You clicked: " & ctrl.Caption)
End Sub

// Create the command bar variables at the class level.
Office.CommandBar commandBar;
Office.CommandBarButton firstButton;
Office.CommandBarButton secondButton;

private void ThisDocument_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    AddToolbar();
}

private void AddToolbar()
{
    try
    {
        commandBar = Application.CommandBars["Test"];
    }
    catch (ArgumentException e)
    {
        // Toolbar named Test does not exist so we should create it.
    }

    if (commandBar == null)
    {
        // Add a commandbar named Test.
        commandBar = Application.CommandBars.Add("Test", 1, missing, true);
    }

    try
    {
        // Add a button to the command bar and an event handler.
        firstButton = (Office.CommandBarButton)commandBar.Controls.Add(
            1, missing, missing, missing, missing);

        firstButton.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption;
        firstButton.Caption = "button 1";
        firstButton.Tag = "button1";
        firstButton.Click += new Office._CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(ButtonClick);

        // Add a second button to the command bar and an event handler.
        secondButton = (Office.CommandBarButton)commandBar.Controls.Add(
            1, missing, missing, missing, missing);

        secondButton.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption;
        secondButton.Caption = "button 2";
        secondButton.Tag = "button2";
        secondButton.Click += new Office._CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(ButtonClick);

        commandBar.Visible = true;
    }
    catch (ArgumentException e)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(e.Message);
    }
}

// Handles the event when a button on the new toolbar is clicked. 
private void ButtonClick(Office.CommandBarButton ctrl, ref bool cancel)
{
    MessageBox.Show("You clicked: " + ctrl.Caption);
}

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create Office Menus Programmatically

Walkthrough: Creating Shortcut Menus for Bookmarks

Concepts

Office UI Customization

The Variable missing and Optional Parameters in Office Solutions