ActionSet.RibbonUI Namespace

Ribbon Controls

When you install PureComponents RibbonUI on your computer, you’ll find in Visual Studio toolbox these controls:

Ribbon

Main control creates RibbonUI. When you place it on Form, its image will change to RibbonUI, so that it contains Ribbon, Application Button, Quick Access Toolbar, Status Bar and workspace area. Ribbon component needs to be populated with Tabs and Contextual Tabs, they can be defined both in designer and in code. Ribbon component also works as a parent container for the other Ribbon UI parts - Application Button, Quick Access Toolbar and Status bar. All the settings in these components is done through their parent Ribbon component.
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RibbonButton

The RibbonButton control allows the user to click it to perform an action. When the button is clicked, it looks as if it is being pushed in and released. RibbonButton can display text and picture of size 16x16 or 32x32 pixels. It can have visible border and the ScreenTip can be defined which appears when user hovers over the RibbonButton.

RibbonButtonGroup

RibbonButtonGroup creates a group of small buttons, which displays only picture of size 16x16 pixels. To achieve this, simply add the RibbonButtonGroup to the RibbonGroup (ideally in vertical layout to keep the buttons small) then populate it with RibbonGroupButtonItem controls and set their icons.

RibbonComboBox

The RibbonComboBox control is used to display data in a drop-down combo box. The RibbonComboBox does not provide all funcionality as a standard ComboBox but it is simple to use and is specially designed to fit the Ribbon UI visual style. It can be used e.g. for setting the font.

RibbonControl

This control represent just zone/tier of ribbon tabs without application button and status bar. It can be used when you want to use some advantages of Ribbon component but you need to keep the style of your existing form. When placing standard Ribbon component on a form, the form is automatically changed to Ribbon UI style, creating the Application Button, Quick Access toolbar and other Ribbon UI parts. This is not true with RibbonControl - when added to a form, the Ribbon Tab control is created only, which can be populated with controls in a Ribbon UI style.

RibbonDivider

RibbonDivider is vertical line serving to divide controls inside a group panel into several groups.

RibbonDropDownButton

After pressing, RibbonDropDownButton displays menu, containing list of items. Every item can contain other subitems. RibbonDropDownButton appears exactly like a normal RibbonButton with text and image, the only difference is the additional small arrow displayed at the bottom. When you click this button, the menu with subitems appears. This menu can be either Ribbon UI-like list with icons, text and description, or just simple ContextMenu. This decision is done through the MenuType property, existing ContextMenu can be simply associated with AssociatedMenu property. Every item can also contain other subitems which allows you to create the multi-level menu. So this control is useful to safe the space in the Ribbon when you can have several actions united under one single button.

RibbonForm

RibbonForm changes standard look of Form to RibbonUI. It can be used e.g. for creating dialog boxes. When added to a form, it changes the style to Ribbon UI. No Ribbon UI component is added though (like the Application Button or Status Bar), it just changes the appearance of the form. The shape of the form, colors and background are affected. It changes the style of basic form handlers - Minimize, Maximize, Help and Close buttons and a resize handlers as well. Each one of these handlers can be shown or hidden. The area for adding buttons can be created at the bottom of the form with ShowButtonArea property. RibbonForm can be used e.g. for creating dialog boxes in Ribbon UI style.

RibbonGallery

RibbonGallery Component Gallery is a new type of control found in Office 2007. Gallery behave similarly to menus, but contents of gallery is very different. While menus provide a list of individual actions, gallery provide visual list of results user will get by applying the action. Gallery is populated throug the Items collection, each item has an image and a title. RibbonGallery is scrollable, it can contain more items that can fit in and it has a button which opens whole gallery in a popup.

RibbonGroupPanel

RibbonGroupPanel serve as optical distribution of commands in groups according to their character, e.g. View, Edit, Find. Group Panel also determines the layout of embedded controls.

With FillLayout property you can specify whether the controls should automatically fill whole group panel area or not. Moving controls inside a Group Panel is reached by BringToFront and SendToBack commands. In a bottom-right corner of each RibbonGroupPanel there can be icon displayed which is called DialogBoxLauncher. Dialog Box Launchers is used to access dialog boxes that provide more advanced functionality related to the group.

RibbonLayoutPanel

RibbonLayoutPanel serves for creating more complicated layouts inside RibbonGroupPanel. If you want e.g. to create Group Panel, which has some controls in horizontal layout and some in vertical layout, first you will set layout of RibbonGroupPanel to horizontal, insert some buttons into it and then, set RibbonLayoutPanel to vertical layout and there insert those buttons, which will spread out vertically.

RibbonHScrollBar, RibbonVScrollBar

RibbonHScrollBar and RibbonVScrollBar controls are used to provide easy navigation through a long list of items or a large amount of information by scrolling either horizontally or vertically within an application or control. You can either have own scrollbar inside that control or you can use RibbonScrollBar instead.

RibbonScrollablePanel

RibbonScrollablePanel is container component used for creating scrollable workspace.

RibbonTextBox

RibbonTextBox is used to get input from the user or to display text. RibbonTextBox provides similar funcionality as a standard TextBox and is designed to fit the Ribbon UI visual style.

RibbonThemeController

RibbonThemeController is made for changing default RibbonUI look. If only Ribbon component occurs in the Form, it uses default Blue theme. If you want to use other theme or change color, you have to insert RibbonThemeController in the Form. There, in the Form, you set required look by using Theme, HueShift, Saturation or Color properties.
More information in chapter Colored Themes. You can use the TransitionTime property to change the speed of Ribbon animation.