Understanding Application-Specific Command Bar Information

This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

Despite sharing a common object model, each Microsoft® Office application stores command bar information in a different location and, in some cases, implements command bars in a different way. The primary difference is how and where each Office application stores custom command bars.

Note   When you make changes to any of the built-in command bars in an Office application, information about those changes is stored in the Windows registry on a per-user basis. Information about the visibility and location of built-in and custom command bars is stored in the registry as well.

Each Office application stores its command bars either with the Office document that contains the command bars, or in an application-specific file. One important result of this is that command bars cannot be shared between Office documents of different types although they can be shared among documents of the same type. You cannot create a command bar in Microsoft® Word and then copy that command bar to a Microsoft® Access application and use it there.

With the exception of Access, all Office applications store command bar information in specific locations, the path to which depends on whether user profiles have been set up for multiple users on the computer where the command bars are created. For more information about setting up user profiles, search the Microsoft® Windows® Help index for "user profiles."

In This Section

• Microsoft Access Command Bars
  Understand command bars in Microsoft® Access.
• Microsoft Excel Command Bars
  Store command bars with an individual workbook or in the Microsoft® Excel workspace.
• Microsoft FrontPage Command Bars
  Create custom command bars that will be available in the Microsoft® FrontPage® workspace.
• Microsoft Outlook Command Bars
  Store command bars in the Microsoft® Outlook® workspace.
• Microsoft PowerPoint Command Bars
  Store custom command bars in the Microsoft® PowerPoint® workspace.
• Microsoft Word Command Bars
  Create a command bar in Microsoft® Word, and store it in the Normal.dot template, in a separate template, or in the currently active document.

Related Sections

• Working with Command Bars
  Write code to manipulate command bars that can be used in any Microsoft® Office application or custom application you develop.
• Manipulating Command Bars and Command Bar Controls with VBA Code
  Use objects, collections, properties, and methods to show, hide, and modify existing command bars and command bar controls, as well as create new ones.