Ribbon and Toolbars

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In Microsoft Dynamics NAV, the ribbon is where the user learns about the actions available on a page. Each action has a name, an icon, and a placement in the ribbon that helps the user understand its purpose and applicability given the information and current selection in the page. Some pages have subsections, for example the lines on a document page, or a FactBox. Actions specific to a subsection are shown to the user in a toolbar inside the subsection.

This topic provides recommendations about how to organize actions in the ribbon and toolbars.

Ribbon layout

The standard organization of actions in the ribbon involves 4 ribbon tabs: Home, Actions, Navigate, and Reports.

The actions in the Actions, Navigate, and Reports tabs are actions that are defined in Action Designer for the page as ActionsItems, RelatedInformationItems, and ReportItems, respectively. The actions in the Home tab are made up from the subset of the 3 types of actions that have the Promoted property set true.

Within the 4 ribbon tabs, actions can be grouped. Top-level groups appear as ribbon action groups, second-level groups appear as dropdown menus in the ribbon. The grouping of actions, as well as the number and names of the ribbon tabs, can be customized by the user and administrators to fit individual and workgroup needs.

Example of ribbon

Home tab

Actions tab

Navigate tab

Reports tab

Presents the basic system actions, actions related to Notes and Links, as well as the most frequently used application actions.

Presents the complete set of application actions, as well as additional system actions.

Presents actions that open up other pages that show information related to the current page/selection.

Contains actions that run reports that are related to the current page/selection.

When placing actions in the 4 ribbon tabs, and forming groups of actions, you should observe the following guidelines:

  • The names of actions in the Home tab’s New group must be nouns, for example, Sales Order.

  • Do not place application actions in the Home tab’s Manage group. The Manage group should contain only system actions.

  • On the Home tab, organize actions that are used together in groups, and place groups in an order that reflects the sequence of use.

  • Whenever possible, use second-level groups, which become dropdown menus, to group tightly-coupled actions. For example, you could group Item Availability By Event, Period, Variant, and so on.

  • Do not have more than 9 elements in a top-level action group in any ribbon tab. Dropdown menus count as one element only.

  • Do not have actions in the ribbon that depend on or act on a selection in a subsection of the page. Only the subsection’s toolbar should have actions that do so.

Toolbar layout

A toolbar contains actions that are specific to a subsection of a page, for example the grid lines on a document or a FactBox.

Example of toolbar for a subpage

See Also

Concepts

Field and Group Layout
Styling Field Values
Interaction Modes
User Interface Text