Switch ribbon category for the user

Question

I have a program written in C++ using MFC. It has a ribbon UI, Office style.

I would like to achieve the following - Suppose the user has highlighted category A of the ribbon, and clicks a button in that category, I would like my program to switch to category B and highlight it for him in response to that click.

This might sound strange, but I really have a use case where the user might not realize that he needs to switch categories, so I would like to do it for him automatically.

Can this be done?

Answer 1

Perhaps you're looking for CMFCRibbonBar::SetActiveCategory.

There is a similar question on CodeProject that includes a sample function for programmatically selecting a category by name. Reproduced below for information:

int CYourClassName::ActivateCategoryByName( CString strCategoryName)
{
    // Grab Pointer to MainFrame 
    CMainFrame* pMainFrame = ( CMainFrame*) AfxGetMainWnd();

    // Grab Pointer to RibbonBar
    CMFCRibbonBar* pmrb = &pMainFrame->m_wndRibbonBar;

    // Get Category Count
    int nCategoryCount = pmrb->GetCategoryCount();

    // Scan Category
    for ( int nCategoryNdx = 0; nCategoryNdx < nCategoryCount; nCategoryNdx++)
    {
        // Grab Pointer to Category
        CMFCRibbonCategory* pmrc = pmrb->GetCategory( nCategoryNdx);

        // Get Category Name
        CString strName = pmrc->GetName();

        // Check for Requested Category
        if ( strName == strCategoryName)
        {
            pmrb->ShowCategory( nCategoryNdx, TRUE);
            pmrb->SetActiveCategory( pmrc, TRUE);       
            return nCategoryNdx;
        }
    }

    return -1;
}