VSTO teething problems

[hav]

Hi - I want to write a SimpleHello app in VSTO for my company which
we'll test on a variety of machines before deciding on rebuilding our
COM-add-in for Word, in VSTO. There are however some issues -
possibly with the installation, maybe something else:
I do not have access to the visual interface. I can create an add-in,
but not an application: the menus are different too;
The samples I have (from MSDN, which confuses me) assume that there
will be a menu "File->New Project->" but instead I have "File->New
Project->Other Languages->Visual Basic->Office->2003 Add-ins"; this
allows me to build a VSTOSE add-in, however I do not have the option
of operating on an imported document template/workbook.

There seem to be many different versions, including the VSTO SDK, and
Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System 2003, Visual
Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System, and then Visual
Studio Tools for Office 2003, Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 and
Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 SE (Second Edition). Then there
are betas for Orcas and add-ons like Cypress - however what I really
need is plain vanilla VSTO2005. It seems to be a free download but I
have wasted half a day trying to get it. The only successful search
for 'VSTO' on the MSDN Index - February 2007 - found "Jul 2006
Creating a Multi-Tier Application Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for
Microsoft Office (VSTO) (Level 200)"....probably not what I need right
now.

One idea I had when trying to install VSTO, using Wrox P2P VS2005
Professional's instruction: is 'SE' a different environment to plain
vanilla VSTO? It seems that since this book came out so has VSTO SE,
and as a result of this or perhaps something else I cannot A) create a
new Word add-in and create/select my document, and B) when I go to the
INSERT menu in VS there is no Word application options menu, like it
says there should be on page 781 (chapter 55).

Can anyone tell me why I cannot find a straight VSTO 2005 download,
only VSTO 2005 SE? I did locate articles such as the blogs on MSDN
and others, but I can't find any posts from people with this problem,
which I find strange in that a) its new (it isn't) or b) I am missing
something obvious (probably) or c) this is a temporary problem with
the MS site... any information on the differences between these
approaches would be vital to me.

I have a full MSDN subscription but I am not asked to mention this
during install - maybe this is the problem?

Thanks in advance.
H.Venn

 

[Norman Yuan]

Only half a day to get to know what VSTO is? lucky you, if you are not more
confused than before. If you only say VSTO, it means almost nothing. You
must say exacly which version, or its full name: they all have different
meanings and do different things on different version of Office (2003 and
2007). I am not sure I can explain it clearly, here is my try:

1. VSTO2003. It is add-on to Visual Studio2003 Pro or better. That is, you
need Visual Studio2003 before you can add VSTO2003. You also need Office2003
Pro or stand-alone Word/Excel;

2. VSTO2005. It is a complete suite of VS family development tool, including
doing VSTO projects, along other .NET development project types. It requires
Office2003 Pro SP1, or stand-alone Word/Excel/Outlook

Both VSTO2003 (Add-on) and VSTO2005 can do Document level and Application
level Office development.

3. VSTO2005SE (Add-on again). It is add-on on top of VS2005Pro, VSTO2005,
for Office 2007 development, at application level (no document level as you
do with VSTO2003 add-on and VSTO2005). No limited to Pro edition of Office
2007 any more. It was rushed out for the Office2007 release.

4. VS 2008 (Orca). not released until next year. Do not know how VSTO
technology is incorpporated. I will not surprised me if it make things even
confuding.

So, do a thorough study on what you need to do and choose the correct
versionof VS or VSTO, and the targeting user (Office2003Pro users or
Office2007 users). The confusing VSTO things so far implies VSTO is not
mature enough yet. I'd not do serious VSTO, and waiting to see what is
coming in VS2008.

 

[hav]

....It is actually a little clearer now beleive it or not, Thanks
Norman! I am an MSDN subscriber and use VS2005. I have with me a cd
with "Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Office System" [msdn disc
3089.1] Its the "System" that is setting off alarm bells - in most of
the doc'n it is called "VSTO" - tools for Office, not for the "Office
System". Is this yet another version that you did not list?

Our clients are running XP with Office 2003 SP2 or later.

All I have to do is create a HelloWorld application in VSTO and
demonstrate it for my boss, and now it has been an entire day. As I
said, I can get the option to create an Office add-in, but I cannot
follow any of the funkier demos which integrate Word into Visual
Studio.

Both VSTO2003 (Add-on) and VSTO2005 can do Document level and Application
level Office development.

....but I cannot find VSTO2005 even on the MS sites - they all seem to
be betas for orcas or the SE addon....


So, I think my specs are ok. My only misinterpretation could be that
I have application-level but require document-level as well - it is my
understanding that document level VSTO is more powerful, making for
faster development and more functionality in Office add-ins, only they
wouldn't be called add-ins, its an assembly and a template that are
released....

Cheers
Henry

 

[Norman Yuan]

OK, if you want do document level VSTO project (only applicable to
STAND-ALONE version of Word2003 and Excel2003, or Word/Excel in office2003
PRO VERSION), you need the VSTO2005 suite, there is no need for VSTO2005SE.

Yes, all the names I mentioned so far a retial product name. If you are on
MSDN subscription, VSTO2005 may not come as a full suite depending on what
subscription you are on. Most likely, it is still comes as a set of add-on,
if you are on old subscription scheme, such as Universal (you have choose a
different subscription scheme when renewing, for example, VS Team Developer,
or VS Team Architect, or VS Professional...)

In my case, I have Universal Subscription until a few month ago this year. I
had VS2005 Professional installed first. And added VisualStudio2005 For MS
Office System on later. So my installation have all the capabilities of
reatil VS2005Pro + VSTO2005, while with retail VS2005Pro, you cannot to
Office2003 VSTO project, with retail VSTO2005, you cannot do mobile device
development.

Anyway, since you are targeting Office2003, make sure your user user either
Office2003 Pro, or stand-alone Word/Excel. You do not need add VSTO2005SE
on, but it won'y hurt anything if you do installed it. Note, you cannot do
the development for both Office2003 and Office2007 on the same development
computer.

...It is actually a little clearer now beleive it or not, Thanks
Norman! I am an MSDN subscriber and use VS2005. I have with me a cd
with "Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Office System" [msdn disc
3089.1] Its the "System" that is setting off alarm bells - in most of
the doc'n it is called "VSTO" - tools for Office, not for the "Office
System". Is this yet another version that you did not list?

Our clients are running XP with Office 2003 SP2 or later.

All I have to do is create a HelloWorld application in VSTO and
demonstrate it for my boss, and now it has been an entire day. As I
said, I can get the option to create an Office add-in, but I cannot
follow any of the funkier demos which integrate Word into Visual
Studio.

Both VSTO2003 (Add-on) and VSTO2005 can do Document level and Application
level Office development.

...but I cannot find VSTO2005 even on the MS sites - they all seem to
be betas for orcas or the SE addon....


So, I think my specs are ok. My only misinterpretation could be that
I have application-level but require document-level as well - it is my
understanding that document level VSTO is more powerful, making for
faster development and more functionality in Office add-ins, only they
wouldn't be called add-ins, its an assembly and a template that are
released....

Cheers
Henry