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The expert authors provide a wealth of code samples that show off popular features of VSTO, such as smart tags and the actions pane. Sample code also shows you how to customize the new UI features of the 2007 Microsoft Office system, including the ribbon, custom task pane, and Outlook forms region.
VBA developers will walk away with
The target audience for Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is the "professional developer." The term "professional developer" has several meanings, but the most agreed-upon definition we've heard is that it is someone who gets paid to write code. In other words, it's their primary job. It's not the departmental developer: the accountant who writes Excel macros as part of his accounting tasks or the word processing operator who customizes Word to increase her productivity. Instead, it is the .Net developer who might be interested in using Office as a development platform.
Prior to joining Microsoft, we both worked as VBA developers, customizing Office applications, and were very much interested in learning about managed code. We don't think that we are unique in that respect. There are millions of VBA developers today, many of whom are interested in learning about this next generation of Office development. Current books and documentation for VSTO are typically not written with the VBA developer in mind—it's assumed that the developer is familiar with Visual Studio, object-oriented programming, and the .NET Framework. The focus is (understandably) more on the features of VSTO, and how to work with the hefty Office object models.
We wanted to write a book for the VBA developer audience, and while you might not be familiar with .NET programming, this is where you have an advantage. You already are an Office developer who most likely has a lot of experience with manipulating the Office object models, as well as possessing power-user knowledge of the application. We can't think of a better environment to learn about managed code than within the context of something youare already familiar with: Office development.
VSTO brings Office development to the .NET world, and it has both disadvantages and advantages over using VBA. There are some amazing things you can do to customize Word, Excel. and Outlook with relative ease using VSTO (e.g., creating a customized task pane, adding smart tags to a document, and binding objects on a document to a data source). With the VSTO 2005 SE, you can create add-ins for six Office applications, customize the new ribbon UI feature of Microsoft Office 2007, and create application-level custom task panes.
We've had the advantage of working with the folks who designed, coded, tested, and documented VSTO, all of whom we have learned a great deal from. We've had an insider view of VSTO, and we hope to convey that information to you in an understandable and enjoyable manner.
Topics Covered in This Chapter 3
What Is VSTO? 3
Why Use VSTO Instead of VBA? 5
Features of VSTO 7
Creating VSTO Solutions 15
How VSTO Integrates with Visual Studio 22
Summary 25
Review Questions 26
Topics Covered in This Chapter 27
Introduction to the Visual Studio IDE 27
Viewing IDE Windows 35
Tools for Writing Code 52
Building and Running Code 61
Debugging Your Code 63
Locating and Using Help 82
Summary 87
Review Questions 88
Topics Covered in This Chapter 89
What Is Managed Code? 89
Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming 91
Exploring the .NET Framework 108
VSTO and Managed Code 120
Summary 126
Review Questions 127
Topics Covered in This Chapter 129
Moving to Visual Basic 2005 129
New Features of Visual Basic 2005 130
Language Differences of VBA and Visual Basic 2005 140
UserForms Versus Windows Forms 152
Summary 170
Review Questions 170
Topics Covered in This Chapter 173
What Is a Task Pane? 173
Customizing the Document Actions Task Pane 175
Managing the Actions Pane 177
Designing Actions Pane Solutions 180
Creating Context-Sensitive Solutions 194
Summary 204
Review Questions 205
Topics Covered in This Chapter 207
Programming in Word 207
Word Host Items and Host Controls 218
Data Binding to Host Controls on Documents 233
Programming Against Events 240
Special Enhancements to the Bookmark 265
Making Word Documents Smart 269
Summary 270
Review Questions 271
Topics Covered in This Chapter 273
Programming in Excel 273
Excel Host Items and Host Controls 285
Data Binding to Host Controls on Worksheets 308
Programming Against Events 320
Making Excel Smarter 348
Summary 349
Review Questions 350
Topics Covered in This Chapter 351
About Controls 351
Adding Controls to Toolbars and Menus 352
Using Windows Forms Controls 365
Adding Controls to a Windows Form 378
Adding Controls to the Task Pane 388
Adding Controls to Excel and Word Documents 390
Summary 415
Review Questions 416
Topics Covered in This Chapter 417
What Is a Smart Tag? 417
Creating Word and Excel Smart Tags with VSTO 422
Understanding Smart Tag Properties 426
Taking Action on a Smart Tag 428
Introduction to Regular Expressions 436
Overriding Smart Tag Recognizers 446
Summary 455
Review Questions 455
Topics Covered in This Chapter 459
Application-Level Customizations Using VSTO 459
Outlook Object Model Overview 475
Customizing Menus and Toolbars in Outlook 482
Debugging Add-ins 486
Security in Outlook Add-ins Created with VSTO 492
Summary 496
Review Questions 497
Topics Covered in This Chapter 499
VSTO Security Model 499
Deploying Word and Excel Solutions 505
Deploying Outlook Solutions 528
Summary 529
Review Questions 529
Topics Covered in This Chapter 531
Migration Overview 531
Migration Strategies 532
Simple Migration of a Word VBA Project 534
Advanced Migration of a Word VBA Project 537
VBA and VSTO Interoperability 547
Summary 553
Review Questions 553
Topics Covered in This Chapter 555
ServerDocument Overview 555
Attaching and Detaching Document-Based Customizations 556
Reading and Writing the Data Cache 560
Clearing the Data Cache 571
Summary 572
Review Questions 572
Topics Covered in This Chapter 575
Introduction to VSTO 2005 SE 575
Creating Add-ins 584
Customizing the Ribbon 585
Creating Custom Task Panes 622
Creating a Custom Form Region 638
Summary 650
Review Questions 650
The target audience for Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) is the "professional developer." The term "professional developer" has several meanings, but the most agreed-upon definition we've heard is that it is someone who gets paid to write code. In other words, it's their primary job. It's not the departmental developer: the accountant who writes Excel macros as part of his accounting tasks or the word processing operator who customizes Word to increase her productivity. Instead, it is the .Net developer who might be interested in using Office as a development platform.
Prior to joining Microsoft, we both worked as VBA developers, customizing Office applications, and were very much interested in learning about managed code. We don't think that we are unique in that respect. There are millions of VBA developers today, many of whom are interested in learning about this next generation of Office development. Current books and documentation for VSTO are typically not written with the VBA developer in mind—it's assumed that the developer is familiar with Visual Studio, object-oriented programming, and the .NET Framework. The focus is (understandably) more on the features of VSTO, and how to work with the hefty Office object models.
We wanted to write a book for the VBA developer audience, and while you might not be familiar with .NET programming, this is where you have an advantage. You already are an Office developer who most likely has a lot of experience with manipulating the Office object models, as well as possessing power-user knowledge of the application. We can't think of a better environment to learn about managed code than within the context of something you are already familiar with: Office development.
VSTO brings Office development to the .NET world, and it has both disadvantages and advantages over using VBA. There are some amazing things you can do to customize Word, Excel. and Outlook with relative ease using VSTO (e.g., creating a customized task pane, adding smart tags to a document, and binding objects on a document to a data source). With the VSTO 2005 SE, you can create add-ins for six Office applications, customize the new ribbon UI feature of Microsoft Office 2007, and create application-level custom task panes.
We've had the advantage of working with the folks who designed, coded, tested, and documented VSTO, all of whom we have learned a great deal from. We've had an insider view of VSTO, and we hope to convey that information to you in an understandable and enjoyable manner.
ChaosBDM
Posted April 29, 2013
I have Visual Studio 2010 and 2013, so there are some incompatibilities with the source material contained within the book. There are also some code errors in the book. This is actually a good thing as I learned even more by debugging the incompatibilities and the source code. The information presented on the details of the Controls was informative. I recommend the book as the information about the IDE, Integrated Development Environment, was very helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted February 23, 2007
This book is part of the 'For Mere Mortals' series, which sounds like it was created by the publisher to compete with the popular Dummies and Idiots books. However, McGrath's efforts are not a trivial read. What she describes is a considerable effort by Microsoft to migrate the myriad VBA developers towards .NET and Visual Studio 2005 Tools. The emphasis is not on implementing abstractions like object oriented programming. Rather, it uses the reader's background in coding VBA and in MS Word and Excel. Nor are you expected to be proficient in database design or the intricacies of SQL Server. Much of the text is about front end material. Like using the conveniences of the VSTO user interface, with its many widgets and menus, to easily code. Many new features are available, compared to what you previously had under VBA. The most striking example is now the nifty ability to have a data island. Imagine an Excel spreadsheet on one machine. That loads from a database on another. If the first machine is your laptop, and you take it somewhere isolated from the network, what happens to your data? Well, there is now a means of copying that data, while you're still connected, into a data cache on the laptop. Without having to go to the extent of running a full database on the laptop.
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Overview
The expert authors provide a wealth of code ...