Microsoft Ribbon UI Design Guidelines

Microsoft invested years of design and testing work into the creation of the ribbon user interface design. They did a fantastic job and to protect their investment, they patented the design. However they still wanted to make a way for third-parties to use the ribbon in their applications.

Microsoft has created a 120+ page document that spells out exactly which parts of the ribbon UI must be implemented if you choose to use a ribbon user interface in your product. Note that you must also sign the Microsoft ribbon UI license agreement (for free), which can be done at the Microsoft Office licensing web site.

Actipro comes in by taking care of implementation of the guidelines. The Actipro Ribbon control has been designed by strictly following the design guidelines that Microsoft created. This ensures that you are able to meet your licensing requirements for when you use a ribbon user interface.

This is very important to note because if you do not implement all of the required guidelines in the document, you are not legally allowed to use the ribbon user interface design!

Actipro Ribbon Design Guideline Implementation Status

The list below details out all of the Microsoft ribbon UI design guideline sections and their implementation status in Actipro Ribbon.

This means that if you use Actipro Ribbon to provide your ribbon user inteface, you know that you are meeting the Microsoft licensing requirements, and that you have access to all of the items that Microsoft has dictated as optional.

Section	Required	"Must" Item Status	"Should" Item Status
Application Menu	Yes	-	-
Displaying the Application Menu	Yes	Complete	Complete
Application Menu Controls	Yes	Complete	Complete
Ribbon	Yes	Complete	Complete
Tabs	Yes	-	-
Displaying Tabs	Yes	Complete	Complete
Minimizing the Ribbon	No	Complete	Complete
Tab Scrolling	No	Complete	Complete
Group	Yes	-	-
Displaying Groups	Yes	Complete	Complete
Dialog Box Launchers	Yes	Complete	Complete
Controls	Yes	-	-
Displaying Controls	Yes	Complete	Complete
Control Layouts	Yes	Complete	Complete
Control Labels	Yes	Complete	Complete
Control Behaviors	Yes	Complete	Complete
Ribbon Resizing	Yes	-	-
Defining Groups for Ribbon Resizing	Yes	Complete	Complete
Collapsed Group Behavior	Yes	Complete	Complete
Defining Group Combinations for Ribbon Resizing	Yes	Complete	Complete
Quick Access Toolbar	Yes	-	-
Displaying the Quick Access Toolbar	Yes	Complete	Complete
Customizing the Quick Access Toolbar	No	Complete	Complete
Displaying Many Controls in the Quick Access Toolbar	No	Complete	Complete
Visual Appearance	Yes	-	-
Application Button	Yes	Complete	Complete
Quick Access Toolbar	Yes	Complete	Complete
Application Title Bar	Yes	Complete	Complete
Tabs	Yes	Complete	Complete
Ribbon Background	Yes	Complete	Complete
Groups	Yes	Complete	Complete
Scrollbars	No	Complete	Complete
Status Bar	No	Complete	Complete
Keyboard Access	Yes	-	-
Displaying KeyTips	Yes	Complete	Complete
Dismissing KeyTips	Yes	Complete	Complete
Keyboard Navigation	Yes	Complete	Complete
KeyTip Size and Positioning	Yes	Complete	Complete
KeyTips for Collapsed Groups	Yes	Complete	Complete
Contextual Tabs	No	-	-
Selecting Contextual Tabs When Inserting a New Object	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Showing Contextual Tabs After Selecting An Existing Object	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Contextual Tab Labels	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Galleries	No	-	-
Displaying Galleries	Yes*	Complete	Complete
In-Ribbon Gallery Navigation Arrows	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Displaing Expanded In-Ribbon Galleries	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Resizing Expanded In-Ribbon Galleries	No	Complete	Complete
Gallery Filters	No	Complete	Complete
Mini Toolbar	No	-	-
Displaying the Mini Toolbar	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Dismissing the Mini Toolbar	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Controls Displayed on the Mini Toolbar	Yes*	Complete	Complete
Displaying the Mini Toolbar with Context Menus	Yes*	Complete	Complete
ScreenTips	Yes	-	-
Displaying ScreenTips	Yes*	Complete	Complete

* Subsection is required only if its optional parent section is implemented.