com add-in loads in Power Point but does not load in Excel or Word

[rishi973]

We have developed a shared COM add-in for MS Office in vb.net. It works fine
on some machines. But then on some machines, it works with Power Point and
Outlook but fails to load in Word and Excel. I am not sure what is going on.
Can someone help?

Thanks,

 

[Patrick Smith [MSFT]]

Is there an error message that you receive when it tries to load?

Patrick Smith
Program Manager
Office Programmability

 

[rishi973]

no, there is no error message what so ever. If I go to "Tools > COM Add-ins"
menu, it simply shows the add-in with the corresponding checkbox empty
(un-checked). Even if I click on the check box to check it, click "Ok"
button, close the word app and then re-open it, the same thing happens.

By the way, this add-in is supposed to add a toolbar button.

The confusing part is that it works in Powerpoint and Outlook but not in
Word. I even tried one solution suggested by someone (in another thread) by
going to "Help > About Microsoft Word" and then clicking on the "Disabled
Items" buttons. But even THAT screen does not list this add-in.

Thanks in advance.

Hrishi.

 

[Rick Humphrey]

I can appreciate your frustration, I'm wondering if you have a hodge podge of
client machines some having the PIA's installed and some not, some loade in
the GAC and some not? Also I beleive I remember reading somethin about the
way the Excel application is invoked being slightly different and less
forgiving than PPT and Word, you may want to investigate these... Of course
I'm a beginner so don't laugh if my response seems dumb, ok you can laugh

Hope this helps,

Rick

 

[Bob Eaton]

Check the macro security settings. I had the reverse problem: my button was
showing up in Word, but not Publisher. Eventually, I figured out it was
because Publisher had macro security set to "High", so the add-in wouldn't
load.

Also (perhaps dumb question), are you sure you have the "Add-in" registry
entries for the other apps?

Bob