How can I create a new tab for only my custom add-ins?

Question

Designing an MS Word 2010 add-in using VS 2010. Each add-in has a group, button, and menu. Using the built-in AddIntabs to display the custom add-ins, all the custom group ribbons are displaying in the Add-ins tab properly.

I want to create a new add tab for only my custom add-ins. I tried renaming the built in add-in tab, but a 3rd-party add-in is also using this tab. When I change controlIdType from Office to a custom value and use the same ControlId for my add-in, this does not work. Instead it displays 2 tabs with the same name instead of merging them into one.

I am using Ribbon Designer; if the solution involves changing Ribbon XML, that is also acceptable.

Answer 1

Good question. The following provides the solution using the Ribbon XML.

If you create a new ribbon XML class from Visual Studio it will also add alot of the XML already for your solution. The following will create a custom tab called "Drains". The id identifier creates a custom tab whereas the idMso uses the built in tabs.

<tab id=”t1” label=“Drains”>
</tab>

Use the id within the group tag to create a custom group. Similar syntax to the tab syntax.