Custom ribbon disappears

Hi Kathy,

I would like to know more details before we proceed with the troubleshooting:

Does this issue occur only with the Word application or all Office applications?

Since the issue occurs periodically, we cannot predict the cause. So let us start with disabling the add-ins for Word:

Open Word in its application safe following the steps below:

Click Start, go to Programs, go to Accessories, click Run, type winword /safe (note there is a space between winword and /).

If the application works fine safe mode, try disabling the add ins for the application and check the result,

• Click the File tab.
• Go to Options.
• Click Add-ins.
• Clear all the options. 

Let us know the details and results to assist you better.

Thank you.

Hi Aravinda,

Unfortunately, the problem is very sporadic - probably has happened 6-8 times in the last year; enough to catch my attention, but not enough to cause a tremendous problem.  I have a program that I use constantly that utilizes a Word add-in, and due to the length of time between occurrences I cannot disable this add-in.  The other program is Prolaw by Thomson Elite.

The issue seems to only occur in Word, but I do not have a custom ribbon tab in other Office programs (Excel, Powerpoint).  I have added buttons to the Home tab in Outlook, and have not had any problems with these additional buttons disappearing. 

I wasn't sure if this was a known issue with Word, or perhaps a problem with my other program that "Links" to Word. 

Thanks.

Kathy

Hi,

I have a very similar problem where my customized word tabs seem to dissapear every now and then. It is a very sporadic problem so I'm not able te reproduce it in a controlled manner. I've not found a common trigger nor action I've done before this happens.

Has any cause or problem been identified yet?

Thanks.

  Tim

Hi Tim,

Sorry to say, I have never had the problem resolved.  My "work around" is to save my ribbon customization whenever I make a change to the ribbon (which is fortunately infrequent now) so I can have a backup on hand to be imported when the problem occurs.  I haven't had the custom tab disappear in a while, but I have had an individual command on the custom tab that likes to disappear periodically.

Thanks.

Kathy

Hi Tim and Kathy,

I suspect that the reason you are not getting help is because regular contributors here do not generally use the user-interface ribbon customization and so have not experienced this. They customize the QAT, often saving the customizations in a Global Template, or they do manual XML modification to the ribbon. The latter is more involved but much more flexible and powerful than the customization available directly within Word. The following article provides a jumping-off point for exploring customization, including through the interface and discusses the files involved with Ribbon and QAT modification through the user interface.

Modifying the QAT and Ribbon in Microsoft Word

Thank you, Charles. 

I am still learning Word, having had to convert from Word Perfect for compatibility with our legal software, but have not yet had time to learn beyond the basics.  I just yesterday started to review information about Global Templates and XML modification to the ribbon, but the initial documentation I found was overwhelmingly advanced.  I'm fairly tech savvy, but get lost between Word features either wanting to think for me, or my needing to know program code to tell Word what I want accomplished. 

Thank you for the links to information that introduces and explains the features for a beginner/intermediate user to easily understand. 

Kathy