I have created an Office plugin using Office JS and React Fabric, that runs in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. It is a relatively simple plug-in which consists of a context menu and a ribbon button in the Home tab that both trigger a task pane.
However, in desktop versions of Office 2016, as well as earlier versions like Office 2013, the plugin task pane works, but there is no icon shown in the ribbon. Nor is there a context menu.
As I understand it, this is not a bug in my manifest, but the expected functionality on earlier versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint in Office, because they do not support add-in commands.
Given that, I'm trying to understand the shortest route to supporting these earlier versions. Presumably that is to create a VSTO plugin for each platform I'd like to support. Ideally, I'd like that VSTO plugin to simply add the context menu and ribbon buttons, but then delegate the actual task pane to the existing Office.js add-in. Is this possible?
...As I understand it, this is not a bug in my manifest, but the
expected functionality on earlier versions of Word, Excel and
PowerPoint in Office, because they do not support add-in commands.
Your statement above is 100% correct.
Ideally, I'd like that VSTO plugin to simply add the context menu and
ribbon buttons, but then delegate the actual task pane to the existing
Office.js add-in. Is this possible?
What you suggest in theory is possible, but that would be re-writing the modern add-in framework and even then your modern add-ins wouldn't work as-is because you'll have to do all kinds of API mappings from COM to JS. If you want to go as far as 2010, you only have the option of doing VSTO I'm afraid.
Related
Do you know if this is possible to create a VSTO add-in for excel in an office 365 suite (on desktop, of course)?
Officially, it says it is supported.
But, if I create an empty project on VisualStudio with the default "Office 2013 & 2016 VSTO add-in", it does not load.
But, it works on other machines, with excel 2016.
Can you help me with this?
I already tried many things. And, it seems that the add-in does not even show in the list of COM add-ins in the setup menu. It's not disabled; and, if I look at the registry, the load behavior is 3.
The only strange thing that I found is that when I try to link manually the .dll file using the "add-in" menu, it says that the dll is not a valid excel add-in.
But, if I do it another way and click to the .vsto file, the explorer says that the add-in has been installed correctly..
Thanks a lot
I'm creating a VSTO Add-in for Microsoft Excel. I created a custom tab via Ribbon UI designer. But I does not show up when I launch Excel. Add-in is loaded, as I see it in COM-objects on DEVELOPER tab.
There are a lot of step-by-step tutorials, but following them does not help me.
How should I make my custom tab visible in Excel Workbook?
VSTO provides two main ways for customizing the Ribbon UI (aka Fluent UI):
Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Tab by Using Ribbon XML
Walkthrough: Creating a Custom Tab by Using the Ribbon Designer
Do you get any UI errors in Excel? See How to: Show Add-in User Interface Errors for more information.
Whether the Addin developed for MS Project 2003 will work in MS Project 2013?
Thanks in advance.
I can also confirm that COM Add Ins written for Project 2003 can work fine in Project 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. As noted above, the toolbar controls just move to the Add-Ins tab of the ribbon. If you launched from menu items as well as toolbar controls, those launch points will be lost, but you don't really need those if you have something on the ribbon.
All of this is predicated on using a subset of the COM Interop interface that is 'core', e.g. supported on all versions of MS Project. Microsoft tends to maintain these interfaces pretty well. They may add new stuff in later versions, but I've found that they generally don't drop the old interfaces. You will need to decide which version of the Primary Interop assemblies for building an application to be used across all these Project versions. I've seen advice that says you need to build a separate add-in binary for each version of MS Project, but I've never found a need to do that. You might be able to stick with the PIA from MS Project 2003, but I'd suggest you pick something like Project 2010 or Project 2013 Primary Interop Assemblies.
Hope this helps.
No, it won't.
There is a slim chance that the core code may run ok, but with the switch from the menu bar to the ribbon menu, any menu options presented by the 2003 plug in won't be presented as buttons on the ribbon in 2013, so I can say with certainty that part won't work.
I have an application that is developed using CommanBar tools. As there are much constraints in that, i have planned to shift to the Ribbon(view designer). I created a project like, File->New Project->Excel 2007->Excel Addin for 2010.
Created a sample addin and added a new project to the same solution as I wanted the addin to be added using installer(.msi). I registered the Com Addin in the Registry, but on uninstallation, the files are getting removed only in the registry entry, but not in the MS Excel, the addin still to be remained there. Please help me in this. As I am new to the implementation of Ribbon implementation.
I have used winform c# 4.0.
Thanks in advance.
#kiru - the screen shot for the path you mentioned
Check the path from where the addins are been loaded.
Open Excel
Click File => Options => Addins (Tab)
Select COM Add-ins in Manage dropdown box and click Go
Select the addin and you can see the path where it is been loaded.
If it is from bin directory then follow this
If you are running your msi on development pc clean your solution every time you test your msi.
Microsoft released Microsoft Ribbon for WPF available for download here.
We also have RibbonControlsLibrary.dll, which is a ribbon control too, available for download from Office sites. Currenty it is in CTP version.
Now, which is the difference between these 2 version of ribbons ?
Until now I identified that:
MS Ribbon for WPF doesn't have any theming support and it has an Office 2010 ribbon look and feel. No support for Office 2007 ribbon look and feel.
The ribbon from RibbonControlsLibrary.dll (still CTP) supports theming for Office 2007 look and feel and also supports Office 2010 look and feel. But it doesn't run properly with .NET 4.0. There are some bugs when displaying controls such as comboboxes,textboxes.
Does anybody else worked with these ? Can you give me a link to a stable version of RibbonControlsLibrary.dll ? Does it exists ? Is in fact MS Ribbon for WPF the RTW for the RibbonControlsLibrary.dll or there are just 2 separate ribbons ?
Microsoft has been all over the board with ribbon controls. At one point, there awere at least three different versions floating around. My understanding is that the WPF team has settled on the new Microsoft Ribbon for WPF as the 'official' version of the ribbon. It uses the Windows 'Scenic' ribbon UI (as seen in the Windows 7 Paint and WordPad applications), as opposed to the Office 2007 'Fluent' Ribbon UI found in some earlier controls. I think the WPF team is steering developers away from the Fluent ribbon, and toward the Scenic ribbon.
If you want an Office 2010 look, with it's 'backstage' feature, there are a number of commercial and OpenSource projects that implement that UI. I have played around with the Fluent Ribbon Control Suite, a free control available on CodePlex, and it seems to do a pretty good job in WPF 4, with decent documentation.
Hope that helps!