Ribbon - Hide the Get Started tab

**paulzak** · 05-04-2009, 05:29 PM

Excel 2007 I'm unable to hide this com addin's tab. I can hide the standard tabs fine. This one is a problem. I'm also unsure of the idMso. It's not "MiscrosoftOfficeExcel2007GetStartedTab" and I've tried several variations.

Can anyone help? I see nothing on the Web about this task.
Our corp has installed this add-in in standard config and I want my app to only have my custom tabs in the ribbon.

PLEASE HELP!!!

**stanleydgromjr** · 05-04-2009, 07:49 PM

paulzak,

Try the following.

Click on the:
"Office Button"
"Excel Options"
"Add-Ins"
bottom on the next box "Manage:", click on the down arrow and search for "Excel Add-ins"
"Go..." button
remove the checkmark on the add-in
click on the "OK" button

**paulzak** · 05-05-2009, 09:29 AM

I followed the instructions, but evidently this specific widely-available COM addin from Microsoft cannot be unchecked. I got a message "The connect state of addins registered to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE cannot be changed" so this won't work.

And, just to be clear, I only want this addin disabled (or it's TAB not shown) in my custom app. so the user can have it in other Excel files. And, I won't have any privaleges on user's corp. PCs to be editing their registry/key files.

I just want this tab to NOT appear in my Excel app. I didn't think this would be so hard. I don't want to have to include this tab in my user manual screen shots and address it in the user manual. It's not app. specific.

Any other ideas???

**paulzak** · 05-05-2009, 09:38 AM

And one other detail...

I know that I can hide ALL standard ribbon tabs using XML and startfromscratch = true code. However, I haven't tested that approach since installing the Get Started addin because I want to allow user to toggle back to Excel tabs from my app. I've read you can't use startfromscratch because then the standard tabs are hidden completely and can't be put back with code in open app. So, I'm NOT starting from scratch, hiding them initially with code, and now can put them back as needed. That all works well. Then I installed the Get Started addin like the corp users have put on by corp IT dept.

I expected to be able to just add xml code to hide that tab, too. But I'm having trouble hiding THIS PARTICULAR TAB because it's an addin (COM, specifically) and I guess these tabs are different to manage OR I just haven't found the correct idMSO for this addin's tab (and don't know where to look for it).

I hope someone has over come this issue and can help. (After a bit of searching, I still have not found anything specifically posted about this task on the Net!)

**royUK** · 05-05-2009, 09:41 AM

I'm not sure what you are doing.

You need to change the xml using the CustomUI Editor. You can have a single tab for your application available, all others are hidden, or add a tab for your application with the user's tabs also available

**Andy Pope** · 05-05-2009, 10:12 AM

I don't think the addin will have a idMSO as it is not a builtin tab. It is a custom tab. It may have a idQ but I doubt you will able to discover what that is.

Another problem, even if you knew the tabs id, would be the order in which custom ribbon things are loaded. If yours is loaded first then the id will not exists are this may raise an error.

If your ribbonx is in a .xlsm file then startFromScratch will work.
All menus will be removed and replaced by your defined ones, custom or builtin.

As soon as you activate another workbook the normal ribbon is restored.

**paulzak** · 05-19-2009, 09:03 AM

Thanks for the replies above. To clarify:

Yes, I am using RibbonX in the xlsm file to manage (hide/show/add) the tabs.

I'm specifically NOT using the StartfromScratch = True because I've read (and I may be mistaken) that if you do this you CANNOT, at any point while THAT file is open, put back the standard Excel tabs for the use. (Maybe I need to take the time to actually test this, though I believe that I originally did that. Maybe I only read that online.) Being able to toggle between my custom tabs and the stardard Excel tabs is a system design requirement (also as I stated previously).

My custom Tabs have IDs, the standard tabs have isoIDs, so I was hoping the Addin tab also had some type of ID that I could reference to hide it. But I'm new to RibbonX and XML, admittedly do not know all the differnt IDs that are used (idMso, idQ, etc.) so I might be incorrect. But this is the coding angle that I'm most aggressively pursuing.

Any other ideas out there??? Has anyone achieved hiding the GET STARTED tab??