I admit I have totally waffled on my opinion of the Ribbon. At first I thought it was a nice looking change. Then I started using it and thought it was a nuisance. Then I got used to it (somewhat). Now, I’m just left frustrated by the amount of hunting around I still need to do. Even worse, I find a lot of simple things to be a lot more work.

Reading Simon Murphy’s post on the inefficiency of loading automation add-ins in Excel 2007 touched a nerve. I’m wrapping up the help file for FlowBreeze 2.0, and I consistently find explaining things for Excel 2007 to be a lot more steps. Here is a passage from the troubleshooting guide, in the event that the FlowBreeze toolbar doesn’t load:

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4. Check the Disabled Items list:

Excel 2000 - 2003:
- Click Help > About Microsoft Office Excel, then click the Disabled Items button.
- If FlowBreeze is listed, enable it and restart Excel.

Excel 2007:
- Click the Office Button in the upper left corner of Excel 2007.
- On the bottom-right of the popup menu, click the “Excel Options” button.
- In the Excel Options window, click “Add-Ins” on the left navigation panel.
- Select “Disabled Items” from the “Manage” drop down and click the “Go…” button.
- If FlowBreeze is listed, select it from the list, click the “Enable” button, then close out the Excel Options window and restart Excel.

5. Check the security settings:

Excel 2000 - 2003:
- Click Tools > Macro > Security.
- Click the Trusted Publishers tab
- Make sure the “Trust all installed add-ins and templates” box is checked.
- Restart Excel.

Excel 2007:
- Click the Office Button in the upper left corner of Excel 2007.
- On the bottom-right of the popup menu, click the “Excel Options” button.
- Click “Trust Center” on the left navigation panel.
- Click the “Trust Center Settings” button.
- The “Message Bar” panel should be open by default. Make sure the the “Show in Message Bar…” option is selected.
- Next, click “Add-Ins” from the left menu.

You have two options on the Add-Ins panel:

Option 1:
- Leave all the settings on this panel Unchecked.

Option 2:
- Check the box labeled “Require Application Add-ins to be signed by Trusted Publisher”
- Uncheck “Disable notification for unsigned add-ins”
- Uncheck “Disable all Application Add-ins”

Excel needs to be restarted for these security changes to take effect. If you selected Option 2, then the next time you restart Excel a security message will show below the Ribbon. Click on Options and manually enable FlowBreeze. You will need to restart Excel (again) for the FlowBreeze toolbar to fully load. (Note: FlowBreeze is digitally signed by a Trusted Publisher, but checking the first checkbox will disable it anyway - until you manually set the permissions on the next restart.)

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If I had screenshots for #5, you’d really see how bad it was. Argh!