Hello Don,

as I know you can read and set the Positions of the CommandBar.
You need to iterate over the Explorers CommandBars and get the Position and size of the Standard ToolBar - and yours.

Then reduze the size of the Default ToolBar by the width of yours and move it to Top.
Sue Mosher has written a sample how to save the position of a ToolBar.

This should get you started...

http://www.outlookcode.com/vsto/toolb...

The Color - I'm not sure if this is possible, because all ToolBars are created and refreshed dynamically. The Backcolor comes from the selected Theme. But - Maybe you can change it using the Windows API. However - you can use a ImageButton/Icon that Identifies your ToolBar.

Hope this helps,

greets - Helmut