Extending Excel UI Visual Studio 2015 - excel

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.

Related

Why can I not side-load a developer web add-in in Excel (works fine on other machines)?

My team is developing an Office web add-in for Excel built in vanilla Javascript. To test and debug our project, we have been side-loading the add-in as per the usual steps.
Which are:
Navigate to /Users/USERNAME/Library/Containers/com.microsoft.Excel/Data/Documents/wef
Copy and paste manifest.xml file in above directory
Open Excel, click the insert tab, click My Add-Ins dropdown, then select the add-in described by the manifest.xml (which is under Developer Add-Ins)
This process works smoothly for everyone on the team except for one person. For that one person, after they have completed the steps, they see no Developer Add-Ins section, and no options to load the add-in described by the manifest.
What could be causing this issue?
More Info:
Problematic team member:
Non-problematic team members:

Bridging VSTO to Office.js functionality

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.

Location for Add-in in Office 2013

I have migrated my project from Office 2010 to Office 2013. ( office plug-in with a DropDown Menu design).
Previously Office 2010 used to show Add-in options File->Add-in->"Custom Add-in"Menu.
What is the new position of Add-in, where does default add-ins go in Office 2013?
Thanks,
Pawan Kumar
If it is any help according to ZDNet they are now called "Apps" instead of "Add-in's". There was a great article about this on ZDnet, here is a link:
Microsoft Office 2013: Bye-bye add-ins, hello apps
Here is the official Microsoft page about them:
View, manage, and install add-ins in Office programs
Hope you find this helpful.
It depends on whether you have developed your add-in using VBA or VSTO.
In any case you need to enable the Developer tab (this is must for developing using VBA as the first step!). For this, right click on the ribbon and select Customize the Ribbon option. Check the check box for the Developer then click the OK button. Then under the Developer tab,
In case of VBA, you can see the add-in by clicking the Add-Ins button.
In case of VSTO, you need to click the COM Add-Ins button.
This works for both Office 2010 and Office 2013.

How to create events for toolbar?

I am trying to develop an addin for MS Office 2010. I am stuck in
1)how to create events for toolbar?
2)How to initialize and deinitialize toolbar?
3)How to initialize button event click handler and deinitialize
I am using Ribbon Visual Designer to develop the addin of my own. I am new to this.
I am also using C# 4.0 VSTO 2010.
Thanks
From the ribbon designer you should be able to double click on button, combobox or ribbon itself to create button click event and similarly for other controls.
You could also wire up the events in the Ribbon.cs codebehind directly in the Ribbon load event. when you type this it bring up the available events at application level in intellisense.
Globals.ThisAddin.Application.
Read this http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608623.aspx
There is nothing like initialize and deinitialize toolbar in VSTO. Hope this helps.

Microsoft Ribbon for WPF vs. Office RIbbon UI

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!

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