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The New Ribbon

Commands for the navigators and graphical editors are now no longer selected via menu and toolbars, but by means of a ribbon. This ribbon is similar in functionality and structure to the ribbons known from Microsoft Office products.

The Tabs of the ribbon are divided into task-specific Command groups to make it easier for you to find the Commands. For example, the Home tab contains the following command groups: Clipboard, Page, 3D layout space, Graphical preview, Text, Edit and Find.

Context-dependent tabs

The tabs Insert, Edit and View are context-dependent. They are only shown once the editor is open. Depending on the editor being used, other command groups and commands are available in these tabs.

If an editor is undocked, the context-dependent tabs are available in the window of the editor as a separate ribbon.

You can customize the ribbon and add own tabs, command groups and - via API add-ins - own commands. You can export a user-customized ribbon and also import it again. If you require more space in the main window or in an undocked editor, you can also minimize the ribbon.

"Tell me what you want to do?" search field

With the "Tell me what you want to do?" search field in the ribbon you can quickly search for the functionalities required in a current situation. You are already familiar with such a search field from Microsoft Office products. With the entry of a search term (e.g. "Page") a list with the corresponding commands is displayed below this field (e.g. Navigator, New, Number, etc.). When a command is selected, the respective dialog is opened (for example the dialog New page for the command New).

An undocked editor also has such a search field. Since the ribbon is context-specific, only those commands which are available in the current situation are shown in the ribbon.

Minimizing the main window

If you reduce the size of the EPLAN main window, the ribbon is reduced in such a manner that you can still access all commands. To this purpose the text is hidden for some commands and only the icon is displayed. In addition the command groups are reduced to buttons for which the commands are accessible via drop-down lists.

If the main window is reduced even more, eventually only a part of the ribbon is shown. In this case you can move the displayed part of the ribbon via a button at the right or left edge of the ribbon.

Drop-down lists with commands

To save space some commands in the ribbon are arranged below other buttons. These are indicated by means of a small arrow which is located next to a button or below a command group designation. When you click the arrow, additional commands are shown in a drop-down list.

Quick access toolbar

For frequently used commands a small customizable quick access toolbar is available above the ribbon at the left edge of the title bar. By default commands such as Previous page, Next page, Undo list, etc. are shown here as buttons. With the button in the title bar you branch into a drop-down list and can deactivate non-required buttons of the toolbar by clicking the corresponding commands.

The Customize dialog allows you to add further commands to the toolbar.

Because of the changed user interface, toolbars from older EPLAN versions (Version 2.9 or older) cannot be imported in the current version.

Expanded status bar

To give you faster access to some functionalities for viewing or editing, information such as the cursor position, page scale, etc. and commands such as Object snap, Grid, Zoom window, etc. are not located in the ribbon but in the status bar of the editors.

The information such as the status of the connections, the icon for the note on new system messages, etc. are still displayed in the status bar of the EPLAN main window.

See also