Where are toolbars kept?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rob
  • Start date Start date
R

Rob

I have created a custom toolbar in excel 2000 and customized other standard
ones, however if possible I would like to do the same on a work machine and
it would be useful and quicker if the new and customized toolbars could be
copied to another computer.

My problem is I don't know where the files are kept for copying.

Any help much appreciated. Rob
 
Rob,

Changes to the standard toolbars are kept in a file named excel.xlb.
It is in different locations depending on your OS and Office version.

If you created toolbars using the customize command from the toolbars
pop-up menu, I think they will be in this file also. (I always create
toolbars in VBA code, and those are available whenever the workbook
they are in is open.)

Anyway, do a search for the excel.xlb file, and copy it to one of the
other computers. (Make sure it goes in the right place on the
destination computer, and rename the existing file before you copy the
new one!!)

Win98/ME:
C:\windows\application data\microsoft\excel\excel.xlb

Win2000/XP:
C:\documents and settings\%USERNAME%\application
data\microsoft\excel\excel.xlb


Mike


Mike Argy
Custom Office Solutions
and Windows/UNIX applications

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Just a minor clarification. Some versions of excel used the login name and
version number of excel for the name of the *.xlb file.

In xl97, mine was called peterson8.xlb and was under c:\windows (win98, too).

I'd use Windows start button|Find (or search) to look for *.xlb. And look in
hidden folders for hidden files, too.

When I copy toolbar files from on pc to another (only with the same version of
excel),
I like to make a minor change (create a dummy toolbar), close excel and then
search. When I find the one that has correct date/time stamp, I know I've got
the real one.

Then I just make sure I put the "real" on in the correct spot and use the
correct name.

(And if I found more than one *.xlb file, I trash the others.)
 
Hi Rob,
Suggest you make that a search for *.xlb
as the name will vary depending on version of Excel and where you
run Excel from (as on a network).

Some pages that might be of interest.
Toolbars, Custom Buttons and Menus
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/toolbars.htm .

Backup your files, always take backups
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm

Barhopper -- fixup for Restored Toolbars, and -- Listing of Menu Items
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/barhopper.htm
provides some documentation for you.

Menu Maker (tip 53) , John Walkenbach
http://j-walk.com/ss/excel/tips/tip53.htm


Mike A said:
Rob,

Changes to the standard toolbars are kept in a file named excel.xlb.
It is in different locations depending on your OS and Office version.

If you created toolbars using the customize command from the toolbars
pop-up menu, I think they will be in this file also. (I always create
toolbars in VBA code, and those are available whenever the workbook
they are in is open.)
Click to expand...

True and John Walkenbach's Menu Maker (tip 53) is one way of
implementing without having to write your own VBA code. You can
do a Google Groups search for other examples, but working from a
worksheet is easy and allows you to properly categorize your toolbar
menus.
 
Thanks for expanding on this subject, guys - I would hate to mislead
someone!

I also realized that Excel versions 2002+ add the version number to
the filename for the default configuration, such as excel10.xlb.

I agree, searching for *.xlb is probably the best way to go.



Mike Argy
Custom Office Solutions
and Windows/UNIX applications

Please post on-topic responses to the newsgroup

To e-mail me, remove nospam from the address
 
Something else that I didn't think of is that *.xlb files
are hidden. Since I hate the thought of anything being hidden
I don't think of such things. There is a note within my backup.htm
page on that and how to unhide files.

Presumably hidden files were to protect the system from having
critical files deleted, to help you see just your own files,
and they were used as a kind of software protection against copying
software.. Recently hidden files are used with viruses. Where what
looks like a harmless text file, readme.txt, is in reality readme.txt.pif
which is an executable and could severely damage your system if opened.
A good reason in itself to not have hidden files.
 
You're welcome. We probably didn't have anything more to add
at the moment anyway. Well maybe just one more detail ... <grin>
 
I bet you meant hidden extensions for known types in your example of malicious
files.

David said:
Something else that I didn't think of is that *.xlb files
are hidden. Since I hate the thought of anything being hidden
I don't think of such things. There is a note within my backup.htm
page on that and how to unhide files.

Presumably hidden files were to protect the system from having
critical files deleted, to help you see just your own files,
and they were used as a kind of software protection against copying
software.. Recently hidden files are used with viruses. Where what
looks like a harmless text file, readme.txt, is in reality readme.txt.pif
which is an executable and could severely damage your system if opened.
A good reason in itself to not have hidden files.
--
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel [site changed Nov. 2001]
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

Mike A said:
Thanks for expanding on this subject, guys - I would hate to mislead
someone!

I also realized that Excel versions 2002+ add the version number to
the filename for the default configuration, such as excel10.xlb.

I agree, searching for *.xlb is probably the best way to go.



Mike Argy
Custom Office Solutions
and Windows/UNIX applications

Please post on-topic responses to the newsgroup

To e-mail me, remove nospam from the address
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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