Create custom ribbon button on SharePoint using designer

There are always some or the other action on your document library or list which you do repeatedly and many times a day. Clicking through various menu to do these becomes tiresome and you always wish if you had a button on your library robbon to reduce the effort.

Now you can add such a button on your ribbon with the help of SharePoint designer. Below is a step by step example where I created a notification button.

1. Open you List or document library page and navigate to List/Library ribbon
2. Look for "Customize Library" section on the right side of the ribbon and click on "New Quick Step"
3. This will open SharePoint Designer with a pop up to set up property of the new button. You can choose to create a new workflow to implement the functionality of the button or can reuse already existing workflow.
4. Note that you should know how to create workflow in SharePoint designer and should be able to translate your activity as workflow
5. Once you have finalized the workflow click on "Publish".
6. Open the library page again and choose one document. On the document ribbon under "Quick Steps" section, you should now be able to see the new button.

You can also associate the button to navigate to a form or webpage. For this you will have to:

1. Navigate to the library on SharePoint Designer and look for the button in the "Custom actions" section in the botton right corner
2. Click on the button name and choose the link where you want the button to redirect to.
3. Save and publish the changes
4. You can delete the button by choosing it and clicking on delete on the top ribbon