Ribbon Control Adv

The RibbonControlAdv functions similar to Microsoft' s Ribbon Control. It serves as an optimal alternative for menus, taskpanes and toolstrips.

The appearance of the form can be changed to the Ribbon Form style providing an Office 2007 look and feel.

The appearance of the form can also be set to the Office 2007 style by inheriting the RibbonForm class.

The RibbonControlAdv is provided with the Office Menu Button at its top left corner. Controls added to the RibbonControlAdv can be viewed as a drop-down meu.

The visibility of the Office Menu Button can be turned on or off as desired.

Flexible Designer support is added to the Office Menu Button drop-down menu which helps the user create Office 2007 style drop-down menu to easily enclose various controls.

Essential Tools allows users to display Super ToolTip for Office Menu Button in RibbonControlAdv.

With the Super ToolTip component added to the form, users can associate appealing SuperToolTips for the Office Menu Button in RibbonControlAdv.

Super Accelerator support is extended to the Office Menu Button of RibbonControlAdv. This feature accelerates the click event of items using a single key stroke and eliminates the need for a mouse hover.

Controls that are accessed frequently can be placed in the Quick Access Toolbar(QAT). The QAT appears in the top left corner near the Office Menu Button of the RibbonControlAdv by default.

The QAT can also be placed below the ribbon, as illustrated below:

The controls in the QAT can be determined at run-time using the QAT Editor. The QAT Editor can be accessed from the QAT drop-down menu. The controls collection can also be easily accessed.

The visibility of the QAT can be turned on or off as desired.

Main tab items in the RibbonControlAdv are referred to as the ToolStrip Tab Items. RibbonControlAdv toolstrips are placed inside these ToolStrip Tab Items.

Image inclusion options are also available for these ToolStrip Tab Items.

Accessing this items collection is an easy task when using the RibbonControlAdv.

A collection of tab groups can be defined and the Toolstrip Tab items can be grouped in these tabs. The colors for these tabgroups are customizable.

Tabgroup colors in RibbonControlAdv will also be reflected to its Ribbon panel with gradient effect.

Essential Tools allows the Ribbon Panel of the RibbonControlAdv to be expanded, Collapsed and floated whenever needed by clicking the Ribbon Tabs.

The Ribbon Panel can also be restricted from collapsing with a single property.

Controls serving as common interfaces for producing user interface elements can be placed in the ToolStripEx. Standard toolstrip items that can be placed in the ToolStripEx have been illustrated below:

These controls also include Labels, Buttons, RadioButton, CheckBox, Galleries, Splitbutton, Dropdownbutton, ProgressBar,ComboBox, ToolStripComboBoxEx, TextBox, Separator and PanelItem.

Individual Toolstrips can be embedded in the RibbonControlAdv's ToolStripTabItem

Further, the ToolStripEx also includes capabilities to host any .NET Control.

Controls can be aligned in multiple lines using the ToolStripPanelItem. This ToolStripPanelItem supports the nesting of panels and there is no limit to the levels of nesting possible.

A Gallery consists of images and text that can be enclosed in RibbonControlAdv as a ToolStrip Item. The gallery items can be viewed using scroll-arrow navigation when their number exceeds gallery size.

Alternatively, the gallery items can also be viewed in a pop-up window as shown below:

An Office 2007 style StatusStrip, displaying the status, can be displayed at the bottom of the Ribbon Form. This StatusStrip can include a wide variety of child controls such as a Progressbar and Trackbar.

The StatusStrip illustrated above includes the Office 2007 TrackBarEx Control.

TrackBarEx is a new Office2007 control that has a track bar or pointer which slides between minimum and maximum values specified. It comes with various customization options such as color settings, button customization, orientation and so on.

RibbonControlAdv allows RibbonPanels from childForms and MainForms to merge. This merging is very similar to the Office2007 User Iinterface(UI) in MDI(Multiple Document Interface) scenario.

The RibbonControlAdv can host any .NET control inside the Ribbon. Users are not restricted to just toolstrip items but can add various .NET controls such as Treeview, Grid control and so on.

The RibbonControlAdv can be rendered right-to-left when using RTL languages.

The Launcher button in ToolStripEx can be displayed in either the 'Office 2007' or 'Office 12' Style.

The TabStrip items can be oriented in one of the following Layouts:

Three different border styles are available for the RibbonControlAdv and child controls. They have been illustrated below:

Blue, Black and Silver color schemes can be applied to the RibbonControlAdv.

These Office 2007 color schemes can also be provided for individual child controls in RibbonControlAdv. Different color schemes applied to the different child controls is illustrated below:

Custom color schemes can be implemented on the RibbonControlAdv providing appealing looks for the applications. The RibbonControlAdv can now be customized with various user-defined colors.