Dialog box launcher

Launcher

Since the replacement of the Excel 2003 style menu with the Excel 2007 ribbon, many items from the previous menu system were not included in the ribbon. Instead a Dialog Box launcher control was included in certain Groups on the ribbon providing access to off ribbon controls. The Clipboard group, Dialog Box launcher is shown in figure 1.

xlf-ribbon-launcher-group
Fig 1. Excel 2013 Dialog Launcher – showing the Dialog Box launcher – in the bottom right corner of the Clipboard group

The Font, Alignment, and Number – Dialog box launchers

Looking at the Font group in figure 1, the Dialog Box launcher opens the Format Cells dialog box with the Font tab active, see figure 2. Similarly, the Alignment Dialog Box launcher opens the same box with the Alignment tab active, and the same logic applies to the Number group – Number tab combination.

xlf-format-cells-dialog-font-tab
Fig 2. Excel 2013 ribbon – – for the Font group, showing the Font tab active

In Excel 2013, the default ribbon includes the following Dialog Box launcher items.

  • Home
    • Clipboard
    • Font
    • Alignment
    • Number
  • Insert
    • Charts
  • Page Layout
    • Page Setups
    • Sheet Options
  • Data
    • Outline

Other Dialog Box launcher items are on Contextual tabs, such as the Chart Tools contextual tab.