What path do you recommend creating an Office Addin?

[ciprian.amariei]

I have to create an Office addin that should target Word, Excel and PP
2002+ versions, using .NET. What path do you recommend developing such
an addin. (which PIA? w/o using a shim etc.)

I will appreciate any ideas/suggestions from you.

Thanks

 

[XL-Dennis]

Hi,

You didn't mention which version of Visual Studio.NET (VS.NET) You got
access to. However, in general You should take a closer look into the Shared
Add-in template that is shipped with VS.NET.

You should use the PIA for Office XP which can be downloaded here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...1E-3060-4F71-A6B4-01FEBA508E52&displaylang=en

As for shimming it's general recommended in order to avoid any issues on the
end users machines. Here is the start page for the COM Wizard:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa159894(office.11).aspx

---------------
With kind regards,
Dennis
Weekly Blog .NET & Excel: http://xldennis.wordpress.com/
My English site: http://www.excelkb.com/default.aspx
My Swedish site: http://www.xldennis.com/

 

[ciprian.amariei]

thanks for the directions.

I use vs.net 2005

 

[XL-Dennis]

Hi again,

Make sure You take part of the following KB-articles:

Working with the Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa163987(office.10).aspx

A Primer to the Office XP Primary Interop Assemblies
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa201322(office.11).aspx

Isolating Microsoft Office Extensions with the COM Shim Wizard Version 2.0
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-gb/library/aa537166(office.11).aspx

Information about designing Office XP add-ins and Office 2003 add-ins by
using the .NET Framework
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=840585

---------------
With kind regards,
Dennis
Weekly Blog .NET & Excel: http://xldennis.wordpress.com/
My English site: http://www.excelkb.com/default.aspx
My Swedish site: http://www.xldennis.com/

 

[ciprian.amariei]

Thanks a lot.

Does such an addin will be compatible with 2007 too?

 

[XL-Dennis]

Hi,

In Office 2007 we may consider the Ribbon but it's not necessary as the
add-in will be accesible via the Add-in tab.

What You need to consider is to use the different versions of PIA in the
setups, i e if You target XP, 2002 and 2007 then You should develop three
versions of the add-in.

---------------
With kind regards,
Dennis
Weekly Blog .NET & Excel: http://xldennis.wordpress.com/
My English site: http://www.excelkb.com/default.aspx
My Swedish site: http://www.xldennis.com/