[FAQ's: OD] How do I use .NET to make an Add-In for an Office application?

[RobDog888]

Using VS.NET 2003...


Start a new project and select - New Project > Other Projects > Extensibility Projects > "Shared Add-In" (Fig. 1). Fill in the Name and press OK.

Fig. 1







Then you will get a "Welcome to the Add-In Wizard" extensibility wizard that will help you finish configuring your add-in.

AddIn Wizard Step 1: Choose the language you want to write it in - Visual Basic, Visual C#, Visual C++/ALT (Fig. 2).

Fig. 2




AddIn Wizard Step 2: Is where you will be presented with a checked list of which office apps you want it shared with. Ie: each paticular office app, vs addin, etc (Fig. 3). For this demo I am going to choose Outlook only. Then click Next.

Fig. 3




AddIn Wizard Step 3: Give your add-in a name and description. These show in the COM AddIn dialog if the AddIn is manageable by the user. Then click Next (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4




AddIn Wizard Step 4: This is where you can specify the Add-Ins loading behavior. Choices can be edited later (via registry edit) and include: Load when application loads, load on demand, not loaded (Fig. 5).

The other option is to specify if the Add-In is to be available to all users on the system or a particular user (Private). for the example I will choose All Users (Fig. 5). For special notes and elaboration on the consequences of "Just Me" vs. "All Users", please see post #3 below.


Fig. 5




AddIn Wizard Step 5: This last step is just a summary screen (Fig. 6). Click Finish to have the wizard apply the settings and selections.

Fig. 6



Almost done. Now its time to get down to some actual c0d.

The wizard will generate a template of code based upon your selections.


VB.NET Code example below in post #2.

C# Code example below in post #4 (Added 01.16.2007)

Installation procedures and characteristics of your setup package are continued below in post #3.