Just to keep you both, sorta, up to speed...

I'm at work now, I installed the UIEditor and it seems to work great.

I started to modify the code for the ribbon and all was...WAS going well.

I changed the main tab name...save, close, open in excel...worked fine...go back to the UIEditor.

Changed some of the button names...save, close, open in excel, looks good.

Added another group with about 25 buttons....save, close, open in excel and.........nothing.

The custom tab is gone. So now I'm going to DL your "really simple example" and try again, being careful not to change ANYTHING except the labels and id's and see what happens.

I can see a very small, very dim light at the end of a very long tunnel, lol. Thanks to both of you.

After I get the tab to "look" like I want it to, then I have to make it actually DO something. I'm hoping I can add this file as an add-in and change the "onAction" for each button to call the code from the original add-in...?????... c'mon, make me smile, tell me I can do that...lol.

Anyow, thanks again...at least now I can actually see what you've been talking about and it's starting to make sense.