Develop Add-ins for Office 2008?

[daniel.chalef]

Despite spending significant time Googling for Office Add-in
development resources for Office 2008 I haven't come up with much.

Am I correct in believing that the only extension infrastructure to be
found in Office 2008 is AppleScript?

Daniel

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Despite spending significant time Googling for Office Add-in
development resources for Office 2008 I haven't come up with much.

Am I correct in believing that the only extension infrastructure to be
found in Office 2008 is AppleScript?

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

You are correct. AppleScript is the only extensibility option for Office
2008.

This deficiency does not exist in previous versions and it will be
corrected in the next major release of Office for the Mac, but Office
2008 can not make or use add-ins. Microsoft has said it will not update
Office 2008 to add this functionality.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[daniel.chalef]

Jim,

(e-mail address removed) wrote:

You are correct. AppleScript is the only extensibility option for Office
2008.

This deficiency does not exist in previous versions and it will be
corrected in the next major release of Office for the Mac, but Office
2008 can not make or use add-ins. Microsoft has said it will not update
Office 2008 to add this functionality.

Thanks for the fast response. I'm aware that VBA was dropped due to
problems with getting it working on the IA-32 architecture, though
should be making its return soon.

Is there an Objective-C Add-in architecture? How would I write a
binary "plugin" for Office 2008 similar to Office Add-ins in the
Windows world?

Daniel

 

[Bob Greenblatt]

Jim,



Thanks for the fast response. I'm aware that VBA was dropped due to
problems with getting it working on the IA-32 architecture, though
should be making its return soon.

Is there an Objective-C Add-in architecture? How would I write a
binary "plugin" for Office 2008 similar to Office Add-ins in the
Windows world?

Daniel

I have no idea. As far as I know there is no development kit for Office
2008. For Excel, however, you can (and always could) develop an add in in
the XLM macro language. That is still fully supported in Excel 2008.

 

[Jim Gordon MVP]

Jim,



Thanks for the fast response. I'm aware that VBA was dropped due to
problems with getting it working on the IA-32 architecture, though
should be making its return soon.

Is there an Objective-C Add-in architecture? How would I write a
binary "plugin" for Office 2008 similar to Office Add-ins in the
Windows world?

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

You can not create any add-ins. You can't have code that's integrated
with Excel the same way add-ins behave.

You can use AppleScript to access most of the OLE object model provided
by VBA. Drop Excel's icon onto the AppleScript editor to see Excel's
extensive dictionary. You need to know both VBA (and how to control VBA
via OLE) and AppleScript to take full advantage of this capability.

AppleScript is the key here. You can have AppleScript run XCode apps,
and interact with Excel.

-Jim

--
Jim Gordon
Mac MVP

MVPs are independent experts who are not affiliated with Microsoft.


Visit my blog
http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-i7JMeio7cqvhotIUwCzaJWq9

 

[John McGhie]

Microsoft has indicated that there may be an SDK offered, at least for Word.
As far as I know, this is being offered directly to ISVs, it is not
available to the general public.

If you want to send me an email with your complete company contact details,
I will pass them on to the product group.

Cheers


On 11/07/08 5:02 PM, in article
(e-mail address removed),

--
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Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]