How can I make my custom style buttons appear in the ribbon?

Question

I'm using Excel in Microsoft 365 Version 2511 Build 19426.20118 to keep track of my daily activities and I color code many types of events. Years ago I created 10 custom cell formats and somehow managed to make them always appear in the ribbon, and that worked well for many years. Recently, things changed, and the custom buttons I created were no longer appearing in the ribbon, necessitating a pull-down of the Styles dialog box to see them. I have tried adding numbered prefixes to the names of the custom buttons, and I have tried deleting all buttons except my custom buttons, and still a mix of my custom buttons and stock and/or blanks appear in the ribbon. Weirdly, when I pull down the Styles dialog box, my custom buttons appear at the top under "Custom" the way I want them to show, but as soon as I close the dialog box, they revert to a mixture of stock buttons and my custom buttons. So my question is: how do I permanently fix the custom cell format buttons I created to be displayed in the ribbon without pulling down the dialog box?

Answer 1

To make your custom style buttons appear in the ribbon in Excel, you can customize the ribbon by adding a Ribbon (Visual Designer) or Ribbon (XML) item to your Excel project. Here are the steps you can follow:

1. Add a Ribbon Item: Go to the Project menu and select Add New Item. Choose either Ribbon (Visual Designer) or Ribbon (XML).
2. Customize the Ribbon: Use the Ribbon (Visual Designer) to add your custom buttons directly to the ribbon. You can create custom tabs or groups to organize your buttons.
3. Ensure Visibility: Make sure that your custom buttons are set to be visible in the ribbon. You may need to adjust the properties of the buttons to ensure they are not hidden or mixed with stock buttons.
4. Save and Test: After customizing, save your project and test it in Excel to see if your custom buttons appear as expected.

If you continue to experience issues with the custom buttons reverting to a mixture of stock buttons, consider checking for updates or resetting the ribbon settings to ensure there are no conflicts with the current version of Excel you are using.

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References:

• Customize the Microsoft Office Ribbon
• Get started customizing the ribbon

Answer 2

Thanks for sharing the details, Jack! Try to delete ALL built-in styles (the effective ones) using "Manage Styles".

Excel sometimes repopulates built-ins because they are enabled, even if not used.

Steps:

Go to Home → Styles → Cell Styles (bottom-right arrow to open the full Style pane).

In the Style pane, click New Cell Style → Style Pane Options.

Turn on Show formatting styles so all styles appear.

Right-click every unwanted built-in style → Delete.

• You can delete most built-ins; Excel will not recreate them unless used.

Close Excel and reopen your workbook.

Your remaining custom styles now appear in the Ribbon because Excel has no fallback built-ins to show.