I agree that Ribbon creation does indeed look a lot like Rocket Science. You don't HAVE to use a Custom UI editor but it does make it a little bit easier. Once you know what you are doing, you won't need the 3rd party tool but it helps to get started.

The QAT edits are a far simpler and quicker way to give you buttons to run macros.

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Andrew Lockton
Chrysalis Design, Melbourne Australia