Ribbon Sets - NO Help

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I'm interested in managing the sets of Ribbons available for my users.  There's a menu item called "My Ribbon Sets" under the "Perspectives" drop-down (top right).

([Thinks]) Oh, that might be what I'm after...  So I search Help for "Ribbon Set" - no matches!   
(as does "Manage Ribbon")

What SHOULD I have searched for?

Searching for "Ribbon" yields:
Search Complete! 1314 matches in 1029 files, total files searched 3102 in 0m 17s

I might as well attempt to read the entire Help file.  The output is in the order of the files, so every entry needs to be examined in case it might be pertinent.

Paolo

[TomO]

Hi Paolo,
In v14 under the Start Ribbon -> View -> Workspace -> My Workspaces you will see a "My Ribbon Sets" tab.

Once a ribbon set has been defined there you can turn them off and on via the right hand side Perspectives menu.

The help for it can be found here:
http://www.sparxsystems.com/enterprise_architect_user_guide/14.0/user_interface/ribbon_menus.html

Best Regards
Tom

[matthew.james]

What SHOULD I have searched for?

... apparently someone from Sparx who knows the answer (!)

[Paolo F Cantoni]

What SHOULD I have searched for?

... apparently, someone from Sparx who knows the answer (!)

As Francis Urquhart would say...  "you might well think that.  I couldn't possibly say that!"

@TomO, while I'm grateful for the information, it was a "rhetorical question".
We users need to be able to search and find items on the menus.

Paolo

[Paolo F Cantoni]

I've now had a little bit of a play with the Ribbon Sets functionality as referenced by TomO.

I now have a few questions.

• Can I create a new ribbon?  Doesn't look like it.  I would also like to be able to select menu portions from various other menus in the new Ribbon.
• I can select which ribbon portion to show, but that seems to be defective.  The whole Ribbon is displayed. Have I misunderstood this functionality?
• There is no mechanism to manipulate the Start Menu. I'm too scared to make another menu the default menu in case I lose the Start menu and can't change the Menu Sets any more!

Any help appreciated!
Paolo

[RoyC]

You could have searched the Help for the exact option text you saw - 'My Ribbon Sets'. There are three references to customizing the ribbons in the output.

Anyway, to your questions:

Can I create a new ribbon?  Doesn't look like it.  I would also like to be able to select menu portions from various other menus in the new Ribbon.

No, you can't create a different ribbon. You can select to show or hide existing ribbons or portions of ribbons as a set. Effectively you ARE creating your own 'super-ribbon', with the existing ribbon, section and option names.

I can select which ribbon portion to show, but that seems to be defective.  The whole Ribbon is displayed. Have I misunderstood this functionality?

Possibly. When I apply a ribbon set and select a ribbon within it, I see the ribbon and the panels within it that I have selected to show. The panels (or complete ribbons) that I have de-selected to hide are not visible.

There is no mechanism to manipulate the Start Menu. I'm too scared to make another menu the default menu in case I lose the Start menu and can't change the Menu Sets any more!

Don't be scared, Paolo!  From the Help topic : "You cannot hide the 'Start' ribbon, 'Specification - Specify' ribbon or 'Document - Edit' ribbon, or any panels that they contain"

You don't hide or render unselectable a ribbon when you set a different one as the default. The default ribbon is the one that is expanded in the ribbon bar when you first open Enterprise Architect. All the other ribbons (within your ribbon set, which always - as the note from the Help states - includes the Start ribbon) are still there to select as and when you wish.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Thanks, Roy,

You could have searched the Help for the exact option text you saw - 'My Ribbon Sets'. There are three references to customizing the ribbons in the output.

Isn't it one of the central tenets of searching that if a specific search finds a set of items "My Ribbon Sets", the more general search e.g.  "Ribbon Sets" MUST also find the same set of items?

Anyway, to your questions:

Can I create a new ribbon?  Doesn't look like it.  I would also like to be able to select menu portions from various other menus in the new Ribbon.

No, you can't create a different ribbon. You can select to show or hide existing ribbons or portions of ribbons as a set. Effectively you ARE creating your own 'super-ribbon', with the existing ribbon, section and option names.

Got it.  There is one Ribbon Framework, consisting of  a variable number of Ribbons, with variable numbers of Sections with Options.

I can select which ribbon portion to show, but that seems to be defective.  The whole Ribbon is displayed. Have I misunderstood this functionality?

Possibly. When I apply a ribbon set and select a ribbon within it, I see the ribbon and the panels within it that I have selected to show. The panels (or complete ribbons) that I have de-selected to hide are not visible.

If I select only one section on a ribbon, say Package Section in the Design Ribbon (the others are deselected), the entire Ribbon displays, not just the selected Section.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work.

There is no mechanism to manipulate the Start Menu. I'm too scared to make another menu the default menu in case I lose the Start menu and can't change the Menu Sets any more!

I think we should, at least be able to display/not display the Start section option sets.  Perhaps, a few need to be permanently available (to inhibit foot shooting), but the rest should be controllable.

Don't be scared, Paolo!  From the Help topic: "You cannot hide the 'Start' ribbon, 'Specification - Specify' ribbon or 'Document - Edit' ribbon, or any panels that they contain"

The last two sections aren't there.  I can hide all the available ribbons except "Start"

You don't hide or render unselectable a ribbon when you set a different one as the default. The default ribbon is the one that is expanded in the ribbon bar when you first open Enterprise Architect. All the other ribbons (within your ribbon set, which always - as the note from the Help states - includes the Start ribbon) are still there to select as and when you wish.

BTW: What is the relationship between the Ribbon Sets and Workspaces?  They seem to be orthogonal.  Is that correct?

Paolo

[Eve]

Isn't it one of the central tenets of searching that if a specific search finds a set of items "My Ribbon Sets", the more general search e.g.  "Ribbon Sets" MUST also find the same set of items?

If I search for ribbon sets, the help shows 14 pages of results. I don't know how it orders those pages, but I don't think I'm going to find what I want. Advanced and selecting phrase search comes up with the right answer.

If I select only one section on a ribbon, say Package Section in the Design Ribbon (the others are deselected), the entire Ribbon displays, not just the selected Section.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work.

Just tested this. I unchecked the simulate ribbon, which unchecked all the sections inside. I then checked the Show section. It also checked the Simulate grouping. When I go to this ribbon it only contains the show group. Am I missing something?

I think we should, at least be able to display/not display the Start section option sets.  Perhaps, a few need to be permanently available (to inhibit foot shooting), but the rest should be controllable.

I can imagine allowing the removal of the Collaborate section. The rest seem pretty essential, so the advantage of this seems minimal at best.

The last two sections aren't there.  I can hide all the available ribbons except "Start"

The last two sections mentioned are dynamic/context driven. But like 'Start' you don't get the option of hiding anything in them, so they don't show in the list.

BTW: What is the relationship between the Ribbon Sets and Workspaces?  They seem to be orthogonal.  Is that correct?

Workspace is the position and size of all the docked windows, and does not impact the ribbon.

[Paolo F Cantoni]

Isn't it one of the central tenets of searching that if a specific search finds a set of items "My Ribbon Sets", the more general search e.g.  "Ribbon Sets" MUST also find the same set of items?

If I search for ribbon sets, the help shows 14 pages of results. I don't know how it orders those pages, but I don't think I'm going to find what I want. Advanced and selecting phrase search comes up with the right answer.

It may be a local problem on my machine.  Yesterday's working search now returns no hits.

If I select only one section on a ribbon, say Package Section in the Design Ribbon (the others are deselected), the entire Ribbon displays, not just the selected Section.  I don't think that's the way it's supposed to work.

Just tested this. I unchecked the simulate ribbon, which unchecked all the sections inside. I then checked the Show section. It also checked the Simulate grouping. When I go to this ribbon it only contains the show group. Am I missing something?

It may be a local problem on my machine.  I see the full ribbon.  I'll try other machines.  [Edit: Tried it on 3 other machines - all the same.]

I think we should at least be able to display/not display the Start section option sets.  Perhaps, a few need to be permanently available (to inhibit foot shooting), but the rest should be controllable.

I can imagine allowing the removal of the Collaborate section. The rest seem pretty essential, so the advantage of this seems minimal at best.

Accepted.

The last two sections aren't there.  I can hide all the available ribbons except "Start"

The last two sections mentioned are dynamic/context driven. But like 'Start' you don't get the option of hiding anything in them, so they don't show in the list.

Just read up on them - my Bad.

BTW: What is the relationship between the Ribbon Sets and Workspaces?  They seem to be orthogonal.  Is that correct?

Workspace is the position and size of all the docked windows and does not impact the ribbon.

That's what I thought, so then I wondered what is the Ribbon Sets page doing way down in the Workspaces branch? It doesn't make sense (and, is had to find).
How can I automate the creation of a default setup?  i.e. this workspace and that ribbon set.  (By pre-populating the AppData Roaming?)

Paolo

[Eve]

I wondered what is the Ribbon Sets page doing way down in the Workspaces branch? It doesn't make sense (and, is had to find).
How can I automate the creation of a default setup?  i.e. this workspace and that ribbon set.  (By pre-populating the AppData Roaming?)

I'd say it's intentionally hard to find because people using any kind of menu customization inevitably results in issues with people unable to find what they need.

No idea how to automate it.