splitButton Element

The splitButton element specifies a split button control. A split button control is composed of either a button or a toggle button, and a drop-down menu. The icon and label shown on the split button come from the button or toggleButton child element.

Graphical View of splitButton Attributes

The following example shows the visible graphical attributes you can set on the splitButton control.

This is specified using the following XML:

<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui">
	<ribbon>
		<tabs>
			<tab id="tabLearn"
			     label="Learn"
			     insertBeforeMso="TabHome">
				<group id="grpDemo"
				       label="Demo">
					<splitButton id="splitButton"
					             size="large">
						<button id="button"
						        imageMso="HappyFace"
						        label="Split Button"/>
						<menu id="menu">
							<button id="button1"
							        label="Button 1"/>
							<button id="button2"
							        label="Button 2"/>
						</menu>
					</splitButton>
				</group>
			</tab>
		</tabs>
	</ribbon>
</customUI>

Parent Elements

box
buttonGroup
dynamicMenu
group
menu
officeMenu

Children Elements

Required Attributes

The id, idQ, and idMso attributes are mutually exclusive. At least one of these attributes MUST be specified.

ATTRIBUTE	WHEN TO USE
id	Create your own splitButton
idMso	Use an existing built-in splitButton
idQ	Create a splitButton shared between namespaces

Optional insert Attributes

The insertAfterMso, insertAfterQ, insertBeforeMso, and insertBeforeQ attributes are mutually exclusive. If none of these attributes are specified, the controls SHOULD be appended to the existing set of controls, in the order they are defined in the XML.

INSERT ATTRIBUTE	ALLOWED VALUES	DEFAULT VALUE	WHEN TO USE
insertAfterMso	Valid Mso Group	Insert at end of group	Insert after built-in control
insertBeforeMso	Valid Mso Group	Insert at end of group	Insert before built-in control
insertAfterQ	Valid Group idQ	Insert at end of group	Insert after shared namespace control
insertBeforeQ	Valid Group idQ	Insert at end of group	Insert before shared namespace control

Optional Attributes and Callbacks

STATIC ATTRIBUTE	DYNAMIC ATTRIBUTE	ALLOWED VALUES	DEFAULT VALUE	VBA CALLBACK SIGNATURE FOR DYNAMIC ATTRIBUTE
enabled	getEnabled	true, false, 1, 0	true	Sub GetEnabled (control As IRibbonControl, ByRef returnedVal)
keytip	getKeytip	1 to 3 characters	(none)	Sub GetKeytip (control As IRibbonControl, ByRef returnedVal)
showLabel	getShowLabel	true, false, 1, 0	true	Sub GetShowLabel (control As IRibbonControl, ByRef returnedVal)
tag	(none)	1 to 1024 characters	(none)	(none)
visible	getVisible	true, false, 1, 0	true	Sub GetVisible (control As IRibbonControl, ByRef returnedVal)

Using Built-in splitButton Controls

Microsoft provides a wide variety of splitButton controls, one of which is the File SaveAs control. Although this splitButton resides on the Office Menu, we will replicate it as a custom Ribbon tab.

This is specified using the following XML:

<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui">
	<ribbon>
		<tabs>
			<tab id="tabLearn"
			     label="Learn"
			     insertBeforeMso="TabHome">
				<group id="grpDemo"
				       label="Demo">
					<splitButton idMso="FileSaveAsMenu"
					             size="large"/>
				</group>
			</tab>
		</tabs>
	</ribbon>
</customUI>

Because we are only using built-in controls, this example does not require VBA.

Creating Custom splitButton Controls

In this example, we add a splitButton that enables us to insert a new sheet in the workbook. Rather than right-click on the Sheet tab, choose Insert, and then select a sheet type, we allow users to insert a new sheet using the splitButton on the Insert tab. In addition, because inserting a sheet is likely a frequent task, we put our new control at the very beginning of the Ribbon.

XML

Copy and paste the following XML code into customUI14.xml. If you don't know how to do it, read this article: Creating a Custom Ribbon.

<customUI xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2009/07/customui">
	<ribbon>
		<tabs>
			<tab idMso="TabInsert">
				<group id="grpInsertSheet"
				       label="Sheets"
				       insertBeforeMso="GroupInsertTablesExcel">
					<splitButton id="sbtnInsertSheet"
					             size="large">
						<button id="btnSplitFace"
						        label="Sheets"
						        imageMso="CreateReportFromWizard"/>
						<menu id="menuInsertSheet">
							<button id="btnWorksheet"
							        label="Insert Worksheet"
							        imageMso="GetExternalDataFromText"
							        onAction="btnInsertSheet_click"/>
							<button id="btnChartsheet"
							        label="Insert Chart Sheet"
							        imageMso="PivotChartType"
							        onAction="btnInsertSheet_click"/>
						</menu>
					</splitButton>
				</group>
			</tab>
		</tabs>
	</ribbon>
</customUI>

VBA

Copy and paste the following VBA code into a normal module:

''------------------ Modules ------------------
''--------------- ExcelBaby.com ---------------
Option Explicit

'Callback for btnWorksheet onAction
Sub btnInsertSheet_click(control As IRibbonControl)
    Select Case control.id
        Case Is = "btnWorksheet"
            ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets.Add
        Case Is = "btnChartsheet"
            ActiveWorkbook.Charts.Add
    End Select
End Sub

Download Custom splitButton Demo

Download splitButton Element Demo.