Question

I would like to create application with ribbon interface that looks and behaves like this:

• application have one main form with ribbon
• ribbon has multiple tabs
• when user switches tab on ribbon, panel below ribbon changes and displays content related to ribbon panel. That way, ribbon tab acts as if it is tab over whole window.

For example, ribbon have two tabs: people and tasks. When current ribbon panel is “people”, below ribbon is displayed grid with people data. Ribbon contains command for manipulating people data. When user switches to “tasks” tab on ribbon, application should display form with tasks below ribbon.

Question is can ribbon be used in this scenario?

I read “OFFICE FLUENT™ USER INTERFACE DESIGN GUIDELINES” that describe what you can and
cannot do with ribbon, but I could not find anything about this.

Answer 1

I found Southridge Hands-on-Lab on Codeplex. In lab 3 there is ribbon control example that is used similarly as I intended to do.

Southridge labs are done by Microsoft, so, I presume, I can do same as this example.