Backstage and profiles

The backstage is the page Excel shows when you click File. Your add-in can put its own settings page there.

What it is for

Everything your add-in needs to know but should not ask on every click: a path, a client, an identifier, a switch. You define fields, the user fills them in, your VBA reads them.

Profiles

The same fields can be filled several times over. Someone working for three clients keeps three profiles and switches, instead of retyping everything.

Optionally the switch also appears as a drop-down in the ribbon, so it does not have to go through the File menu.

Where the values live

In the registry of that user, on that machine. None of it leaves the workstation, and none of it is in the .xlam. So the file is identical for everyone while the settings stay personal.

Reading them from VBA

The generator writes procedures that read a field's value from the active profile. Which ones exactly is visible in the generated module, which you can open in the VBE.

Templates

Five ready-made field sets are available, for a tax practice, controlling or sales among others. They are a starting point, not a corset: take one, rename, extend.