MS Word Preview Pane in OpenFileDialog & More

Hello everyone,

I'm totally new to programming and even understanding programming with the Windows [Office] API. I've got three questions. I'd better first say that I'm programming in Visual Basic.net 2005.

First, I'd like to utilize the "preview pane" that's an option in MS Word while using the OpenFileDialog (File->Open). I hadn't seen this before, but someone pointed it out to me and it's a really nice feature. It gives you a preview of each document when you're opening a file in MS Word. I'm not sure in which version this was added, but I've been using Word 2003 for some time and I know the option is there somewhere. Do I need to use the API to do this?

Second, I don't understand how API programming in general. Do I need to download another SDK for this or can I just start API programming in VS.NET? Does it cost money for the MS Word API?

Third, I'm trying to write a program that records tasks a user takes. For example, I'd like my sample app to run in the background and everytime the user takes a particular action in Word (saves a document, for example), it will record this action with a timestamp in the database. Is this something that I"ll need a particular API for? Is it the Windows XP API or the Office API? Will the version of Office or Windows definitely matter?

Any pertinent reading or help would be *greatly* appreciated!!!

Panvuin

1. I assume your wanting to try to change the view programmatically. I havent found a way with Office's dialogs.

2. No it doesnt cost any money for programming against Word. Press Alt+F11 to open words VBA IDE and then press F2 to view words object browser. its the easiest place to view all words objects and methods, etc.

Not sure if your familiar with VB APIs but they are for the most part compatible with VBA. You can download an API Viewer utility from allapi.net.

3. Just create the default events in Word for DocumentBeforeSave and write code in it to write out the info you want to your log.

For more info and code examples you can search by my username and word on the forums. :)


Moved from API forum.