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Articles / Desktop Programming / Windows Forms

Easily Add a Ribbon into a WinForms Application

7 Aug 2019Ms-PL2 min read 2.4M   38.1K   618   655
Easily add a ribbon to a WinForms application

Style 2007

Image 1

Style 2010

Image 2

Style 2013

Image 3

Background

The ribbon that is going to be used in this article is an open source project created by Jose Menendez Poo. However, the original author of the ribbon has stopped support of it. A group of fans of this ribbon re-host and continue to develop/enhance and support the ribbon.

The original ribbon creator has posted an article explaining what this ribbon is all about at [A Professional Ribbon You Will Use (Now with orb!)]. However, that article doesn't describe how to use it in your project. Therefore, this article will show how to use it.

How to Use this Ribbon Control

The ribbon class library can be added via Nuget. Right click your project and go to "Manage Nuget Packages..."

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Search "RibbonWinForms" and install the nuget package.

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Drag the ribbon control into the form.

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Click "Add Tab".

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Click "Add Panel".

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Showing the commands of the "Panel":

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Click the command and add the controls you want.

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Changing the icon and button text label.

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Adding the "Click" event.

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Type the commands that you wish to do in the event block.

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Now, try run the application.

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Example of using RibbonForm style.

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Replace the inheritance of "Form":

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to "RibbonForm".

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Note

Some behaviour of "RibbonForm" might not be working properly in some unknown circumstances. We recommended that you to perform the test in your environment before delivering your application into production.

Alternative Ribbon Control

Windows Ribbon Framework
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/windowsribbon/-uiplat-windowsribbon-entry 
Support Windows 7 onwards

Krypton WinForms components for .NET
https://github.com/ComponentFactory/Krypton

RibbonLib
https://github.com/ennerperez/RibbonLib 
https://www.nuget.org/packages/RibbonLib

Windows Ribbon for WinForms
https://github.com/ennerperez/RibbonLib 
http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/arik/2010/11/08/windows-ribbon-for-winforms-v26-released/ 
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/55599/Windows-Ribbon-for-WinForms-Part-0-Table-of-Conten

Ribbon by Juan Pablo G.C.
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/18449/An-easy-way-to-add-a-Ribbon-Panel-Office-2007-styl 
http://www.codeproject.com/Articles/19044/The-new-RibbonForm-RibbonRoundButton-and-FastMenu

History

  • 8th August, 2019: Publish Nuget Package, several bug fixes
  • 12th April, 2012: Initial version

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Microsoft Public License (Ms-PL)


Written By
Product Manager
United States United States
- I've been programming Windows and Web apps since 1997.
- My greatest concern nowadays is product, user interface, and usability.
- TypeScript / React expert

@geeksplainer

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Programming is an art.

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Written By
Software Developer (Senior)
United States United States
Lead Software Engineer on a paperless office / workflow system. I specialize in building custom user controls and components that are using in my everyday software. I've also worked with Neural Networks for character recognition on documents in my paperless office software.

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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRe: coult not messagebox Pin
mywaster@sina.cn17-Feb-13 21:58
mywaster@sina.cn17-Feb-13 21:58 
GeneralRe: coult not messagebox Pin
mywaster@sina.cn18-Feb-13 1:52
mywaster@sina.cn18-Feb-13 1:52 
GeneralRe: coult not messagebox Pin
toATwork18-Feb-13 1:54
toATwork18-Feb-13 1:54 
QuestionNo Keyboard control ? Pin
gogogoggg17-Feb-13 7:27
professionalgogogoggg17-Feb-13 7:27 
AnswerRe: No Keyboard control ? Pin
toATwork17-Feb-13 7:37
toATwork17-Feb-13 7:37 
QuestionRibbonForm Pin
gogogoggg14-Feb-13 9:32
professionalgogogoggg14-Feb-13 9:32 
QuestionRe: RibbonForm Pin
toATwork14-Feb-13 21:15
toATwork14-Feb-13 21:15 
AnswerRe: RibbonForm Pin
gogogoggg14-Feb-13 22:54
professionalgogogoggg14-Feb-13 22:54 
I was kidding about large monitors ( over 32767 will go to negative ).

As for RibbonForm. Win7. Actually anchor is bigger problem. It is not taking into account borders and caption so controls overlap borders.

Dock does not overlap borders as with anchor. But it breaks Form dragging.
More info: Ribbon breaks Dock. Panel got drawn under ribbon and got over caption (because of RibbonForm). Ribbon does not receive WndProc about caption (probably panel gets them), so it does not process Form drag.

Also in maximized mode form does not have system buttons (they do appear sometimes), auto-hide taskbar does not work, form caption is initially black, on minimize restore caption is drawn but so are side borders ( and they should not have been ).

I have noticed one more thing. If I place form in upper right corner of screen so screen coordinates match form coordinates, system buttons behave differently ( could there be bug in coordinates translation? ).

modified 15-Feb-13 13:40pm.

QuestionRibbonTab/Orb Style Pin
ccdn14-Feb-13 0:20
ccdn14-Feb-13 0:20 
AnswerRe: RibbonTab/Orb Style Pin
toATwork14-Feb-13 0:31
toATwork14-Feb-13 0:31 
GeneralRe: RibbonTab/Orb Style Pin
ccdn14-Feb-13 1:05
ccdn14-Feb-13 1:05 
BugDoes not work in VS 2010 Pin
searching for solution.....13-Feb-13 23:45
searching for solution.....13-Feb-13 23:45 
AnswerRe: Does not work in VS 2010 Pin
toATwork13-Feb-13 23:49
toATwork13-Feb-13 23:49 
BugRe: Does not work in VS 2010 Pin
searching for solution.....14-Feb-13 0:55
searching for solution.....14-Feb-13 0:55 
AnswerRe: Does not work in VS 2010 Pin
toATwork14-Feb-13 1:47
toATwork14-Feb-13 1:47 
GeneralRe: Does not work in VS 2010 Pin
searching for solution.....14-Feb-13 17:31
searching for solution.....14-Feb-13 17:31 
AnswerRe: Does not work in VS 2010 Pin
toATwork14-Feb-13 20:24
toATwork14-Feb-13 20:24 
QuestionBug or Mis-Use??? Please Help Pin
hawkster9713-Feb-13 11:08
hawkster9713-Feb-13 11:08 
AnswerRe: Bug or Mis-Use??? Please Help Pin
toATwork13-Feb-13 20:51
toATwork13-Feb-13 20:51 
BugRibbonCheckBox bug??? Pin
supernorb13-Feb-13 4:37
supernorb13-Feb-13 4:37 
AnswerRe: RibbonCheckBox bug??? Pin
toATwork13-Feb-13 20:56
toATwork13-Feb-13 20:56 
GeneralRe: RibbonCheckBox bug??? Pin
supernorb13-Feb-13 23:02
supernorb13-Feb-13 23:02 
GeneralRe: RibbonCheckBox bug??? Pin
toATwork13-Feb-13 23:34
toATwork13-Feb-13 23:34 
BugRibbon collapsed if Form is Localizable Pin
Michael Klemm13-Feb-13 2:00
Michael Klemm13-Feb-13 2:00 
BugRe: Ribbon collapsed if Form is Localizable Pin
ccdn13-Feb-13 3:19
ccdn13-Feb-13 3:19 

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