Disable all Office menu items (except 1)?

[David Thielen]

Hi;

You're going to love this question

Ok, we want to have a tutorial where we have a window telling the user
what to do and we disable everything in Word except that one thing. So
we say "insert a table" and all tabs except insert are disabled and
insert is pulsing (changing colors slowly).

And on the insert ribbon the same thing - all disabled except Table
and Table is pulsing.

And we want to do this in Office 2003 & 2007.

I have a bad feeling the answer is no way. But it never hurts to
ask...

thanks - dave


david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm

 

[Cindy M.]

Hi David,

Ok, we want to have a tutorial where we have a window telling the user
what to do and we disable everything in Word except that one thing. So
we say "insert a table" and all tabs except insert are disabled and
insert is pulsing (changing colors slowly).

And on the insert ribbon the same thing - all disabled except Table
and Table is pulsing.

And we want to do this in Office 2003 & 2007.

I have a bad feeling the answer is no way. But it never hurts to
ask...

I don't think you're going to be able to realize the "Insert is pulsing"
part of this. You don't get any control of the colors in that part of
the UI (CommandBars / Ribbon).

For the rest...

Office 2003, maybe, but truly disabling commands would *require* VBA
macros "intercepting" the built-in commands. A macro named the same as a
command will execute instead of the command; FileSave for example.
Caveat: commands being executed from within a built-in task pane don't
follow the rules.

You can certainly disable / make invisible all CommandBar objects.

Office 2007: very tricky as the philosophy behind the Ribbon is that an
outside developer should not be able to lock out the user. Some of the
very basic commands in the Office Button menu are "protected", and you
can't disable or hid that button. You can use "start from scratch" to
suppress everything in the UI except that menu (including the QAT). Many
of the commands in the menu can be disabled by setting that attribute in
the <commands> section of the Ribbon, but I think there are one or two
exceptions (ones that will allow the user to "recover" the application
UI - since it does belong (literally) to him and not to "you").

And, unlike in previous versions, this won't affect the keyboard
shortcuts to commands. Which means you'd also need to go through that
collection and disable those, where possible. (And/Or use the same VBA
modules as in 2003 for most commands.)

From what I've seen, generally, in tutorials over the years, most end up
making a mock-up of the Office app UI with limited hot-spots. If you
click elsewhere, nothing happens. Doing the right thing brings up the
next mock-up.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Jun 17 2005)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Jie Wang [MSFT]]

Hi David,

I agree with Cindy, it will be easier and cleaner (no potential impact on
users' real working Office environment) to make a tutorial using
Silverlight or Flash than struggling with the real Office UI.

Best regards,

Jie Wang

Microsoft Online Community Support

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[David Thielen]

Hi David,

I agree with Cindy, it will be easier and cleaner (no potential impact on
users' real working Office environment) to make a tutorial using
Silverlight or Flash than struggling with the real Office UI.

Ok guys - I'll push back with that.

thanks - dave


david@[email protected]
Windward Reports -- http://www.WindwardReports.com
me -- http://dave.thielen.com

Cubicle Wars - http://www.windwardreports.com/film.htm