Office and .NET?

[Bruce W...1]

Newbie Question
===============

I've been developing with .NET for awhile now. I've seen a number of Microsoft
announcements on developing for Office with .NET. I can't, in my wildest
imagination, imagine what this is about.

What could one possibly want to develop for MS Office? I've always thought of
Office as a complete product.

What more could you want to add? I could see specialized add-ins for Excel but
that's about it.

What's this all about?

Thanks for you help.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Bruce,

You may want to have a look at
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office
It includes a seminar on working
with .NET visual studio and Office.

=================
Newbie Question
===============

I've been developing with .NET for awhile now. I've seen a number of Microsoft
announcements on developing for Office with .NET. I can't, in my wildest
imagination, imagine what this is about.

What could one possibly want to develop for MS Office? I've always thought of
Office as a complete product.

What more could you want to add? I could see specialized add-ins for Excel but
that's about it.

What's this all about?

Thanks for you help. >>
--
I hope this helps you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

The Office 2003 System parts explained
http://microsoft.com/uk/office/preview/system.asp

 

[Randall Arnold]

No offense, but as a longtime Office developer I got a kick out of your
post.

Office *is* a broad suite of full-featured apps, but there's always some
unique functionality that a certain user requires that MS hasn't included
for whatever reason (usually it's too small in market scope). IN one of my
own cases it was the ability to work with a certain MRP system and I had to
create macros, Word templates, spreadsheets, etc to fill in the gaps. .NET
promises to expand the scope of data interchange and repurposing, which will
further automate many business processes.

The neat thing about Office having hooks to the outside world is that
developers can use it as an "engine" for handling processes it wasn't really
designed for BUT can accommodate. Remember, despite the wealth of
functionality, it's still a "vanilla" suite of tools that can't possibly
address every business need. .NET is another step toward addressing those
custom needs.

Randall Arnold

 

[Bruce W...1]

No offense, but as a longtime Office developer I got a kick out of your
post.

Office *is* a broad suite of full-featured apps, but there's always some
unique functionality that a certain user requires that MS hasn't included
for whatever reason (usually it's too small in market scope). IN one of my
own cases it was the ability to work with a certain MRP system and I had to
create macros, Word templates, spreadsheets, etc to fill in the gaps. .NET
promises to expand the scope of data interchange and repurposing, which will
further automate many business processes.

The neat thing about Office having hooks to the outside world is that
developers can use it as an "engine" for handling processes it wasn't really
designed for BUT can accommodate. Remember, despite the wealth of
functionality, it's still a "vanilla" suite of tools that can't possibly
address every business need. .NET is another step toward addressing those
custom needs.

Randall Arnold

=============================================

XML would bring new abilities to Office. But I guess I'll have to see
some examples before I can wrap my head around this. Up until now I
never have seen apps written for Office. I'll keep an eye out.