Is it possible to build a Custom Task Pane for Excel 2007 or 2010 without Visual Studio, that is, using only VBA?
I found this other question but it's not working for me.
I think, as of now, the answer to your question is "No".
As far as I can tell, extending any Office application (Excel, PowerPoint, etc.) with a Custom Task Pane / Application Pane requires a COM add-in, that needs to be developed with Visual Studio.
At least for Office 2007, this article (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa338197%28v=office.12%29.aspx) specifically states that:
(..) custom task panes are deployed as Component Object Model (COM)
add-ins (..)
The same article states that VBA does not support creating such custom task panes.
You can create custom task panes in any language that supports COM and
that enables you to create dynamic-linked library (DLL) files, for
example, Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0, Microsoft Visual Basic .NET,
Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft Visual C++ .NET, and Microsoft Visual
C. However, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) does not
support creating custom task panes. Custom task panes use other
technologies with which you are already familiar, for example,
Microsoft ActiveX controls.
This article shows how to create a custom task pane with C# or VB in VS2013: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa942846.aspx
All in all, this article (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb398242.aspx) states that you need Microsoft Office Developer Tools for developing office solutions, which is only bundled with
Visual Studio Professional
Visual Studio Premium
Visual Studio Ultimate
If you only have VBA available it seems like your are stuck with the original User Forms for now.
I'm looking the same question.
I "think" the only way to make CTP is through VS.
And only way to make in VBA is with userFrom instead of custom task pane.
Related
We are deploying a VSTO Microsoft Office Add-in to Microsoft Excel within our organization. This application was developed in-house using a licensed copy of Visual Studio Professional. I have not had any success in finding any Terms of Use associated with VSTO office-addins / the VSTO development framework. We want to make sure we are not going to get in trouble with legal when deploying this internal app. Are these Terms of Use clearly spelled out somewhere for VSTO?
VSTO is a part of Visual Studio. There is no separate license or terms of use.
I have coded an Excel add-in using Visual C#. This add-in appears as a COM add-in in Excel. However, I am quite sure that it used to appear as an Excel/VSTO Add-In in Excel before an update of Visual Studio. (I know that I was able to access the Globals class. This thread says that Globals can only be accessed in Excel add-ins.)
So my question is: How can I make my COM add-in an Excel/VSTO add-in?
When you create an Office project, Visual Studio automatically generates a class named Globals in the project. You can use the Globals class to access several different project items at run time from any code in the project.
You can start writing your VSTO Add-in code in the ThisAddIn class. Visual Studio automatically generates this class in the ThisAddIn.vb (in Visual Basic) or ThisAddIn.cs (in C#) code file in your VSTO Add-in project. The Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime automatically instantiates this class for you when the Microsoft Office application loads your VSTO Add-in. Read more about that in the Program VSTO Add-ins article.
Also, see Walkthrough: Create your first VSTO Add-in for Excel.
Well, if you used Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.... thats COM... Interoperability. VSTO is a COM.
I have created a VSTO addin using word 2010 template. I am using .net 4.0.
I am interested same functionality in excel 2010 and Power point 2010. Is it possible the add in, already developed could be reuse in excel and power point 2010.
i.e the same add in will work for word 2010, excel 2010 and Powerpoint 2010. I am giving least preferance to create three addins, one for word 2010, excel 2010 and Powerpoint 2010 as the functionality of all the addin is same.
VSTO doesn't allow creating multihost add-ins. You can choose only one host per project in Visual Studio. Of course, you can create a single MSI installer for all your add-ins and deliver it as a single application. But you need to develop separate add-ins/projects in VS. Moreover, Office applications have different object models.
As an alternative way you may consider using Add-in Express which allows supporting multiple host applications in the single project.
I'm looking for some user guide about Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) specially oriented to Excel Add-ins programming.
I have installed Visual Studio 2013 and Microsoft Office 2013 on my computer.
Do you know about some user guide, tutorial or manual preferably in PDF about VSTO?.
Best regards!
The Excel Solutions section in MSDN provides all the required information. I'd suggest starting from the Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Excel article.
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.