CRM 2011 Ribbon Customization Options for Non-Developers

Yes, some of you business analysts are smiling now! But truth be told, ever since visual ribbon editors were introduced, even developers don’t like to mess around in the customization XML anymore. There are 2 products out there that can help you customize the dynamics CRM ribbon VERY easily. BAs would typically use these to hide Out of the box buttons that make the application seem more complicated than it actually is.

Option 1: Visual Ribbon Editor (available on codeplex)

Application Type	Stand alone, WPF Desktop application
Configuration	Fairly simple, supports CRM Online, On Premise and Hosted (ADFS & IFD)
Key Features	Hide/Show existing button Create Groups and buttons (no Flyout anchors) Modify Form, Homepage and Subgrid Ribbon Creates a “temporary” entity ribbon customization solution automatically
Additional Comments	Very nice tool, connects simply to CRM Doesn’t pollute the development environment (only creates a solution that can be deleted after usage) No Jewel customization No complex button types (Flyout, Split Button etc.)

Option 2: Ribbon Workbench (from Develop1)

Application Type	CRM Managed Solution
Configuration	Very simple, supports CRM Online, On Premise and Hosted (ADFS & IFD) – Simply import the solution into your CRM Organization.
Key Features	It does pretty much everything ribbon related! Launched from the Customizations and Solutions home page ribbon (it creates a button there – make sure you refresh after you imported the solution in order to see it) : It requires a solution to load the tool (you should create an entity container solution with only the entity you want to modify to optimize the performance and reduce the risk of overwriting customizations made by others) : It does pretty much everything ribbon related!!
Additional Comments	Very complete tool.I would recommend to use in DEV or Configuration environments if you are patient enough to modify your “ribbon customization solution” to include one or a few entity at the time.