Customizing Outlook Plugin's Ribbon
Outlook Plugin has hardcoded Ribbon XML elements. However, starting with version 2.0.58, it is possible to supply arbitrary XML fragments instead of hardcoded Ribbon XML. Therefore you can configure Ribbon in whatever way required, hiding and showing elements, overriding captions and tooltips, and even supplying your own pictures.
To do that, you need to create folder under %AppData%\LiquidFiles\RibbonXML and put
there files like
| Main ribbon/Explorer: Inline Reply (Outlook 2013 only) | Microsoft.Outlook.Explorer.xml |
| Composing new email in popup window (Inspector) | Microsoft.Outlook.Mail.Compose.xml |
| Composing new Appointment | Microsoft.Outlook.Appointment.xml |
Names of XML files correspond to Ribbon IDs.
The folder must also contain any referenced files, such as
<button id="LiquidFiles_button_OptionAttach_wrapped_wrapped" size="large" label="Overriden Option" image="image.png" />
This XML fragment creates a button with label "Overriden Option" and image "image.png". File "image.png" must be in the same folder. For the best visual results, image must be PNG, with transparent background, 32x32 for large buttons and 16x16 for small buttons.
Requirements
- Outlook plugin 2.0.58 or later.
Configuration
A few samples can be downloaded from here.
Please read readme.txt in that archive to get started.
To learn Ribbon XML schema, please read Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers article.
Known issues
As of 2.0.58:
- You must set all attributes on Groups explicitly, including label attribute.
- IDs of SplitButton are the same across the 3 ribbon files - therefore, making 3 different contents of SplitButton on the ribbons with inherited properties is not officially supported.
However you might be able to make it work by specifying all explicit attributes for splitbutton, while supplying different IDs (including Image and Caption)