How to inspect contents of Excel#.XLB

 Is there a way to see what toolbars and settings are stored in an XLB file?
I'm not asking about resetting toolbars (deleting the .xlb), rather about how to discover what customisations have been used by a given user.

TIA
Patrick

 Patrick

I'm sure there is documented in the file format somewhere, but i wouldn't know how. It certainly would not be in plain text like the new file formats. I would think if you were looking to do something with the user interface temporarily and restore it that you iterate what the user has and log it to a hidden sheet. You can then restore after removing yours. If indeed that is what you are looking to do???

You could also look at Bovey, Green, Bullen Professional Excel Development which has a chapter on this

Thanks, Nick

>I'm sure there is documented in the file format somewhere, but i wouldn't know how.

The only documented file format I know of is the OO excelfileformat.pdf
and it's about BIFF, it has no mention of .xlb

>It certainly would not be in plain text like the new file formats. I would think if you were looking to do something with the user interface temporarily and restore it that you iterate what the user has and log it to a hidden sheet. You can then restore after removing yours. If indeed that is what you are looking to do???

I was more interested in what is in the file and also the history of what accumulates in the file as it bloats.
I could remove it,log the toolbar status, restore it, check again, but what I was wondering if there was a way to actually interpret what is in the file.

I've looked at it in Notepad but saw nothing usable.

>You could also look at Bovey, Green, Bullen Professional Excel Development which has a chapter on this

Yes, PED P.148 shows how to open the XLB to prevent Excel from updating it.


Cheers
Patrick