Hi all,
New poster here (found my way from JKP-ads) and hoping someone can help me with my current Excel frustration: I've just migrated from Excel 2003 / 2004 to Excel 2011 mac, and I'm trying to find out how to migrate my custom toolbars.
In Excel 2003 /2004 there was a .xlb file that was easily transferred across systems to migrate the toolbars. With the advent of the ribbon and the change to xml file structure, this has changed... it seems to a .xlsx named Microsoft Excel Toolbars (now in User/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Preferences/Office 2011/)
In Excel 2011 it is still possible to create custom toolbars from within the app, but I can't figure out how to import my existing custom toolbars. Is there a way to do this? I have done a couple of dozen searches, both web-wide and on a bunch of excel forums (including this one) and haven't found a single clear answer. So if someone here can point me in the right direction, I'll be eternally grateful!
Thanks in advance.
Migrate custom toolbars Excel 2003 > 2011
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HansV
- Administrator
- Posts: 78474
- Joined: 16 Jan 2010, 00:14
- Status: Microsoft MVP
- Location: Wageningen, The Netherlands
Re: Migrate custom toolbars Excel 2003 > 2011
Welcome to Eileen's Lounge!
Although I did use the very first version of Excel for the Mac in 1986, I don't have experience with recent versions.
As far as I can tell, you can attach a toolbar to a workbook so that it will travel with that workbook: from the View menu choose Customize Menus and Toolbars, then click the Attach button.
As you mention yourself, globally available toolbars are stored in
Users/<UserName>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Preferences/Office 2011/Microsoft Excel Toolbars.xlsx
You can copy that file from one computer to the other.
If you still have the .xlb file from an older version of Excel, you might try opening it by double-clicking it. If I remember correctly, that worked in Excel 2007 for Windows, but I don't know if it'll work in Excel 2011 for Mac.
Although I did use the very first version of Excel for the Mac in 1986, I don't have experience with recent versions.
As far as I can tell, you can attach a toolbar to a workbook so that it will travel with that workbook: from the View menu choose Customize Menus and Toolbars, then click the Attach button.
As you mention yourself, globally available toolbars are stored in
Users/<UserName>/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/Preferences/Office 2011/Microsoft Excel Toolbars.xlsx
You can copy that file from one computer to the other.
If you still have the .xlb file from an older version of Excel, you might try opening it by double-clicking it. If I remember correctly, that worked in Excel 2007 for Windows, but I don't know if it'll work in Excel 2011 for Mac.
Best wishes,
Hans
Hans
-
db11
- NewLounger
- Posts: 2
- Joined: 07 Oct 2014, 15:10
Re: Migrate custom toolbars Excel 2003 > 2011
Thanks for the quick reply Hans.
I tried opening the old 'Excel Toolbars (11)' file found in User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft (apparently in 2004 there's no indicated extension... it's not .xlb ), but it doesn't do anything in Excel 2011. A new blank, unnamed workbook opens —not the file itself— and when you go into View>Toolbars>Customize Toolbars and Menus, there aren't any custom toolbars available to attach.
Next up, I'll try attaching the toolbars (in 2004) to the Personal Macro Workbook (mac equivalent of Personal.xls) that holds the macros needed... then replace the 2011 version with that file and see what happens.
It's a bit astounding to me that these types of simple migrations are made so difficult by Microsoft's complete inattention... there's zero information in their own knowledge base. (though I can learn how to migrate toolbars from Excel 97-2000 to 2003 — very topical and helpful :) If it simply isn't possible, you would think they would make that known, so we wouldn't waste time trying to figure out what should be such a simple thing.
Oh well...
I tried opening the old 'Excel Toolbars (11)' file found in User/Library/Preferences/Microsoft (apparently in 2004 there's no indicated extension... it's not .xlb ), but it doesn't do anything in Excel 2011. A new blank, unnamed workbook opens —not the file itself— and when you go into View>Toolbars>Customize Toolbars and Menus, there aren't any custom toolbars available to attach.
Next up, I'll try attaching the toolbars (in 2004) to the Personal Macro Workbook (mac equivalent of Personal.xls) that holds the macros needed... then replace the 2011 version with that file and see what happens.
It's a bit astounding to me that these types of simple migrations are made so difficult by Microsoft's complete inattention... there's zero information in their own knowledge base. (though I can learn how to migrate toolbars from Excel 97-2000 to 2003 — very topical and helpful :) If it simply isn't possible, you would think they would make that known, so we wouldn't waste time trying to figure out what should be such a simple thing.
Oh well...