The whole configuration of DossiersLocaux fits in one sheet: Settings. This page replays the filling-in, line by line, exactly as you will do it in Excel — first the general settings, then wiring a first tool into the ribbon.
| A | B | C |
|---|
Press “Start the demonstration”: the values type themselves in, as if you were typing in Excel.
These six lines describe where to create the folders, which tree to produce, and which columns of your table to read the information from. You fill them in once and for all.
| Setting | Value | Description |
|---|
Each tool is an independent module of the ribbon, described by six lines. The
Outil_N_Chemin field governs everything: as long as it is empty, the button does not appear. You can configure up to seven.
| Setting | Value | Description |
|---|
After changing the Settings sheet, click Refresh in the Configuration group: the ribbon reads your settings again without you having to close the workbook.
Logo_Chemin accepts BMP, JPG, GIF, PNG and ICO. A 32 × 32 px image looks best.
Leave the field empty and the button picks up on its own the icon Windows gives the document the tool opens: the blue W for a .docx, the PDF icon for a
.pdf. It is read on the user's own machine, so it shows the software that will really open on theirs. With no file to open, the executable's icon is used.
These two fields sit either side of the file path on the command line. Useful for passing an option to your software, for example /lecture-seule before the file.
A tool setting can contain dynamic parameters of the form <$…>, replaced at the moment of the click by a value read from the selected row. That is what lets you open a file whose name changes from one folder to the next.
| Written in Settings | Active row | File actually opened |
|---|---|---|
| Notes\notes_<$A>i.txt | column A = 14552 | Notes\notes_14552i.txt |
| Quotes\<$B>.xlsx | column B = Dupont_SARL | Quotes\Dupont_SARL.xlsx |
| CAD\<$Nom du Dossier>.sldprt | column “Nom du Dossier” = Chassis_TX400 | CAD\Chassis_TX400.sldprt |
By its letter — <$A>, <$B> — or by its header — <$Nom du Dossier>. The header is more readable and survives the insertion of a column.
In Critical, Fichier_Relatif,
Prefix_Parametres and Suffix_Parametres. Not in Nom nor Logo_Chemin : those two are read when the ribbon is displayed, outside the context of a selected row.
Characters forbidden in a file name are stripped from the inserted value, and dates are written as YYYY-MM-DD. If a dynamic parameter matches no column, the launch is blocked with an explicit message rather than opening the wrong file.
Here are common tool wirings, ready to copy into the Settingssheet. For each one, only the trio Critical · Fichier_Relatif ·
Prefix / Suffix changes. The executable paths given are the most usual ones on Windows : adapt the version (Office16, Python312…) to your own machine.
Opens the quote filed in the Documentssubfolder, named after the row.
Opens the folder's meeting note in Word.
Opens the PDF invoice with Adobe Acrobat. Replace this with the path of the Acrobat you have installed, or let the default reader handle the file (see the tip below).
Without Acrobat, Microsoft Edge displays a PDF perfectly well.
Opens the row's Files subfolder directly in Windows Explorer.
Launches the folder's rush in VLC (or any other player).
The executable is python.exe ; the prefix names the script, the suffix passes the active row's columns as named arguments.
Shows the scanned drawing in the Windows Photos viewer.
C:\Windows\explorer.exe in
Critical and the file in Fichier_Relatif : Windows then opens the file with the associated program, exactly like a double-click.
Two settings are added to the Settingssheet, and a folder placed next to the workbook is enough to bring your standard documents to life, already filled in with the client's name. These settings appear on their own the first time you open the tab: no existing value is touched.
Apercu_Avant_CreationYes (the default): the exact path, the tree of subfolders and the template documents that will be dropped in are shown to you before anything is written to the disk. No : immediate creation, for anyone creating folders one after another.
Langue_RubanAuto (the default) follows the Office language; FR or EN force it. The change takes effect when you click Refresh, or when the workbook is reopened.
__Model__Shipped in the archiveand placed next to the workbook, it serves twice over: its subfolders describe the tree to create, its files become the starting documents of every client folder — copied, then adapted to the row. The documents supplied (quote, invoice, note, presentation) are examples : replace them with your own.
< and
> in a file name: in __Model__, the same keys are therefore written between braces.
{$Nom du Dossier}_Note.docx on the disk means exactly the same thing as <$Nom du Dossier> in the settings — and gives
Dupont_Note.docx in Mr Dupont's folder.
_Sauvegardes. It is the only place in the add-in that touches an existing file.
See how it goes, in pictures →
You receive by e-mail an archive called DossiersLocaux.zip : the workbook, your standard documents (__Model__) and the PDF manual. Extract it first —
everything into the same folder — then open the workbook. Like any Excel file containing macros and downloaded from the internet, Windows puts it in quarantine: three gestures in all, to be done once only.
DossiersLocaux.xlsm — the workbook ·
__Model__\ — your standard documents ·
Manuel_DossiersLocaux.pdf — the getting-started manual ·
LISEZ-MOI.txt. The workbook and the __Model__
folder must stay side by side : that is how your standard documents get copied into every folder created. If you move the workbook later, take __Model__ with it.
1Right-click the file → Properties. Tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab, then Apply.
2When the workbook opens, click Enable Content in the yellow bar. The DossiersLocaux tab appears in the ribbon.
Right-click DossiersLocaux.zip → Extract All…, into the folder of your choice. Opening the workbook from inside the zip without extracting it would deprive it of its __Model__.
Before opening it: right-click the .xlsm → Properties → tick Unblock at the bottom of the General tab → Apply. That is the “mark of the web” Windows puts on every file that comes from the internet.
On opening, Excel shows a yellow bar: click Enable Content. The DossiersLocaux tab then appears in the ribbon.
The VBA project is not locked: Alt + F11 shows you the whole of the code, commented throughout. Nothing is hidden, nothing leaves your machine — no network connection is ever made.
This tutorial explains how to set the add-in up. Our guides, for their part, explore the technical principles: a sketch of the VBA code, the traps of Word automation, or the mechanics of the Excel ribbon.
See the four guides →