Eric asks how to customize icons for his macros on the Excel 2007 Quick Access Toolbar. In Episode 893, I will take a look at this feature in Excel 2003 and the limited options available in Excel 2007.
Transcript of the video:
Hey, alright, welcome back to the MrExcel netcast.
Thanks to George Wood for the "Where Is It Wednesday" theme.
I have a special request.
Our 10th Anniversary is coming up on this Friday, and I've mentioned it before, I'm taking a survey-- just a quick survey, a few questions-- and I want your feedback.
But I'm a competitive person and when I announced this survey-- was talking about this survey-- my marketing guru, Evan, said, "You'll never get more than 150 responses." I said, "Even though there's 10,000 people to watch the podcast, and many more that come to the website, I'm certainly going to get more than that." And currently, Evan is right-- I need you to go take this survey.
It'll take you just a few minutes; we really want your input, and it'll allow me to say to Evan, "Look, my community is much better than any community you have ever seen-- they were happy to provide input." Just go to MrExcel.com/survey.html.
A few questions: What are we doing right?
What are we doing wrong?
What other ideas do you have for the site?
And I really appreciate your input before Friday, November 21st.
Well, today's question is about the custom toolbar-- the Quick Access toolbar-- in Excel 2007.
And when we add macros to that custom toolbar, how can we do what we used to be able to do in Excel 2003?
Now let's just take a quick look in Excel 2003.
If we would have customized our toolbar-- Tools, Customize, on the Commands tab you choose Macros and then take a button up to the toolbar.
Well, we could do three things.
First of all, Assign a Macro.
So we could Assign the FillSheets macro; we could change the name, so I can put a nice little tool tip there, basically; and then we could choose one of these 48 button images or we could edit the button image; and with the image editor you can actually go through and create any kind of an icon that would fit into the 16 by 16 square.
Alright, so the question we have today from Eric is how can we do that exact same thing in Excel 2007?
And it is fairly frustrating.
When we go into Customize the Quick Access Toolbar, they do give us a macro category and a list of all the macros, including the ones in the analysis toolpak.
So you have to kind of cruise down here, and we find the macro-- FillSheets-- click Add, and then on that particular item we want to click the Modify button.
Now the first thing Eric wanted to know is how we change the tool tip text-- it's right here at the bottom of the Modify.
We can choose to put a nice tool tip in there.
And then the second question is how do we change the icon?
Well, we're not limited to 48 but we are limited to just these icons.
If you need something beyond that-- if you need to edit the icon-- they've taken that out-- it's just simply not there anymore in Excel 2007.
What Microsoft expects you to do is, they expect you to use Ribbon X.
With Ribbon X you can use any image editor and create your own image, and create your own toolbars.
Unfortunately, it is far more difficult to use Ribbon X than to use the old icon editor.
In fact, if you're going to try this, I'm going to recommend a book for you: This is by Ken Puls, Ribbon X: Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon.
A couple of Excel MVPs.
Nice thousand-page book-- it gives you all sorts of examples of how to build your own custom tabs; how to make your own icons; and things like that, in Excel 2007.
So they really have given you far more power than the old 16 by 16 editor.
Unfortunately, they made it untouchable for most people who will never get in and code their own XML.
If you want to try a great book, check it out.
I've seen at the bookshelf at Borders-- certainly, a very cool exercise if you want to go down that path.
Well, I want to thank you for stopping by and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
Thanks to George Wood for the "Where Is It Wednesday" theme.
I have a special request.
Our 10th Anniversary is coming up on this Friday, and I've mentioned it before, I'm taking a survey-- just a quick survey, a few questions-- and I want your feedback.
But I'm a competitive person and when I announced this survey-- was talking about this survey-- my marketing guru, Evan, said, "You'll never get more than 150 responses." I said, "Even though there's 10,000 people to watch the podcast, and many more that come to the website, I'm certainly going to get more than that." And currently, Evan is right-- I need you to go take this survey.
It'll take you just a few minutes; we really want your input, and it'll allow me to say to Evan, "Look, my community is much better than any community you have ever seen-- they were happy to provide input." Just go to MrExcel.com/survey.html.
A few questions: What are we doing right?
What are we doing wrong?
What other ideas do you have for the site?
And I really appreciate your input before Friday, November 21st.
Well, today's question is about the custom toolbar-- the Quick Access toolbar-- in Excel 2007.
And when we add macros to that custom toolbar, how can we do what we used to be able to do in Excel 2003?
Now let's just take a quick look in Excel 2003.
If we would have customized our toolbar-- Tools, Customize, on the Commands tab you choose Macros and then take a button up to the toolbar.
Well, we could do three things.
First of all, Assign a Macro.
So we could Assign the FillSheets macro; we could change the name, so I can put a nice little tool tip there, basically; and then we could choose one of these 48 button images or we could edit the button image; and with the image editor you can actually go through and create any kind of an icon that would fit into the 16 by 16 square.
Alright, so the question we have today from Eric is how can we do that exact same thing in Excel 2007?
And it is fairly frustrating.
When we go into Customize the Quick Access Toolbar, they do give us a macro category and a list of all the macros, including the ones in the analysis toolpak.
So you have to kind of cruise down here, and we find the macro-- FillSheets-- click Add, and then on that particular item we want to click the Modify button.
Now the first thing Eric wanted to know is how we change the tool tip text-- it's right here at the bottom of the Modify.
We can choose to put a nice tool tip in there.
And then the second question is how do we change the icon?
Well, we're not limited to 48 but we are limited to just these icons.
If you need something beyond that-- if you need to edit the icon-- they've taken that out-- it's just simply not there anymore in Excel 2007.
What Microsoft expects you to do is, they expect you to use Ribbon X.
With Ribbon X you can use any image editor and create your own image, and create your own toolbars.
Unfortunately, it is far more difficult to use Ribbon X than to use the old icon editor.
In fact, if you're going to try this, I'm going to recommend a book for you: This is by Ken Puls, Ribbon X: Customizing the Office 2007 Ribbon.
A couple of Excel MVPs.
Nice thousand-page book-- it gives you all sorts of examples of how to build your own custom tabs; how to make your own icons; and things like that, in Excel 2007.
So they really have given you far more power than the old 16 by 16 editor.
Unfortunately, they made it untouchable for most people who will never get in and code their own XML.
If you want to try a great book, check it out.
I've seen at the bookshelf at Borders-- certainly, a very cool exercise if you want to go down that path.
Well, I want to thank you for stopping by and we'll see you next time for another netcast from MrExcel.
