Microsoft Ribbon "More" button of some sort?

Question

We deal with the Microsoft Ribbon UI a lot, one of the things we are considering is if it is possible to have a "More" button on the ribbon somehow that will show extra buttons or options on the ribbon.

This is because, we have a standard ribbon for users and we did add quite a few buttons and actions they can perform. Now some buttons are infrequently used and sure enough we put the to the far right, now if we wanted to not show them at all and only show them when the user really wants them, is it possible to do so in Ribbon? Any examples? Similiar to the more options button of some sort. Thanks!

Answer 1

I believe the standard Microsoft ribbon already applies two methods of showing 'More' options.

1: Dropdown/Menubuttons:

When the space gets tight, the ribbon groups similar items underneath a menubutton.

This is also used to expand the functionality for a single button/action.

2: Expand buttons:

In some occasions there's an expand button underneath a ribbon group which opens a separate window or menu with more or in-depth options. See the button in the lower right corner.

I think both methods are viable ways of reducing the amount of buttons in the toolbar without removing the functionality.

Answer 2

It isn't really good to have extra options show up on the Ribbon when you click a "More..." button, but there are several alternatives:

• Hide them in an extra Tab (to the right)
• Hide them in a drop-down menu (MS Word does this a lot)
• Hide them in dialogs (MS Word only shows subset of available commands, e.g. Font)

Really, it depends on your user's expectations. What do they say?