Microsoft OneNote 2010 : Customizing the OneNote Workspace (part 2) - Adding Commands to the Ribbon

Adding Commands to the Ribbon

Although the Quick Access Toolbar is intended to provide access to your most frequently used commands at all times, it’s important to understand that it does not replace the ribbon, which is your main and most important toolbox in OneNote 2010. For this reason, Microsoft has included the same sophisticated customization interface for ribbon commands, ribbon groups, and ribbon tabs.

To create your own custom ribbon tab with a ribbon group of commands, do the following:

1.	Click the File tab, click Options, and then, in the OneNote Options dialog box that appears, click Customize Ribbon in the list of categories on the left.
2.	Near the top middle, under Customize the Ribbon, click the Choose Commands From drop-down and then select All Commands (see Figure 5).
3.	Scroll through the list on the left to look for your first command. In this example, scroll down to commands beginning with the letter R and then click to select the Rotate Left 45° command.
4.	In the list on the right, click to select Home in the Main Tabs list, and then click the New Tab button at the bottom of the list. OneNote creates a new ribbon tab called New Tab (Custom) and it creates on that tab a new ribbon group called New Group (Custom).
5.	Right-click New Tab (Custom) and then click Rename on the shortcut menu that appears. In the Rename dialog box that appears, replace the selected text by typing Rotation as the new name for this tab, and then click OK.
6.	Right-click New Group (Custom) and then click Rename on the shortcut menu that appears. In the Rename dialog box that appears, replace the selected text by typing Rotate Object as the new name for this group, and then click OK (see Figure 12.18).
7.	With the Rotate Left 45° command still selected in the list on the left, click the Add button between the two lists. OneNote adds the command to the new ribbon group on the new tab you just created.
8.	In the list on the left, click to select the Rotate Left 90° command and then click the Add button between the two lists.
9.	In the list on the left, click to select the Rotate Right 45° command and then click the Add button between the two lists.
10.	In the list on the left, click to select the Rotate Right 90° command and then click the Add button between the two lists.
11.	When all four rotation commands appear in the new ribbon group under the new tab you created (see Figure 5), click OK to save your changes. Figure 5. In this example, we’re adding a new tab called Rotation to the ribbon. This tab will contain one ribbon group called Rotate Object, and that group will contain four command buttons for the four rotation commands that are available in OneNote.

The tab you just created now appears where it was shown in the list (see Figure 5)—between the Home and the Insert tabs. If you click the new Rotation tab, you’ll see the four commands you added to it, which are in the ribbon group that you called Rotate Object (see Figure 6).

To try out the commands you just added, do the following:

As with the Quick Access Toolbar customizations, I encourage you to experiment with these settings as soon as you feel comfortable with using OneNote.

Removing Commands from the Ribbon

To remove commands from the ribbon, you can either hide the tab that contains the commands, or you can delete custom commands as well as custom groups or entire custom tabs.

To hide a ribbon tab, do the following:

The tab and its associated groups and commands will no longer appear on the ribbon. It’s still available, however, so whenever you want to turn it back on, repeat the previous steps and then click the check box next to the tab you want to restore.

To remove a custom command or a custom ribbon group from its associated ribbon tab, do the following:

Restoring deleted ribbon groups cannot be easily done. You must re-create the groups and their commands the same way you initially created them. For this reason, don’t breeze by these features while you’re still learning them and take care when deciding which ribbon customizations you want to delete.

Renaming Ribbon Tabs or Groups

There might be times when you want or need to rename existing tabs or ribbon groups. For example, if you’re customizing a ribbon group with new commands, these commands might no longer fit their group or tab label. Rather than creating a new tab or group, you can rename the existing one.

To rename ribbon tabs or groups, do the following:

Exporting Your Ribbon Customizations for Use on Other Computers

If you’ve made any customizations to the OneNote interface—either just to the Quick Access Toolbar, just to the ribbon, or to both—you can save your custom settings in a file that you can then transfer to another computer that has OneNote 2010 installed.

To export your OneNote 2010 interface customizations, do the following:

By importing this settings file into OneNote 2010 on another computer, your ribbon customizations will be applied to that installation of OneNote.

Resetting Your Ribbon Customizations

If you’ve made extensive customizations to the ribbon that you no longer want to keep, or if you made a mistake and you want to restore the ribbon to its default settings, do the following: