1. Office as a development platform with Visual Studio 2008
Daniel Moth
Developer and Platform Group
Microsoft

2. AGENDA VSTO Overview Office Ribbon Designer Custom Task Pane
Action Pane
Outlook Form Region Designer
Word Content Controls
VBA <-> VSTO interop
ClickOnce Deployment

3. 3

4. Roadmap
v3.0 (in VS2008)
2007
2003
Workflow & Microsoft SharePoint support
Office 2007 system-specific features, file format, UI
App-level add-ins for more client applications
Deeper server-side programming
VSTO fully integrated into Visual Studio 2008
2005 SE
2007
2003
App-level add-ins for most popular Office apps
Runtime support for key Office 2007 UI elements (Custom Taskpane, Ribbon, Outlook form regions)
Runtime support enabling Office 2003 doc-level customizations to run in Office 2007
2005
Custom Document ActionsPane
Host Controls on document surface
Cached data in the document
Server-side data processing
Application-level add-ins for Outlook

5. VSTO Functionality Over Time
SP Workflow,
new designers,
functional extensions
infra investments
11 Office add-ins,
infra investments
Outlook add-ins,
VSTA in InfoPath
functional extensions
infra investments
Doc-level

6. Doc-Level Version Resilience
11/28/2018 6:06 PM
Doc-Level Version Resilience
v1 solutions use the VSTO v1 runtime
v2 solutions use the VSTO v2 runtime
v3+ solutions use the VSTO v3+ runtime
Reduces the number of runtimes (improves performance, working set)
Eliminates type name clashes in DefaultDomain
Based on the Managed Add-in Framework
Common VSTO/VSTA runtime
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7. Set the scene inc document level addins

8. Ribbon, Custom Task Panes, Actions Pane, Form Region
“Fluent” UI
Ribbon,
Custom Task Panes, Actions Pane,
Form Region

9. Office Ribbon New Look and Feel for Office UI
Replaces Command Bars in “the big 5” Office apps
Introduces a new extensibility model: RibbonX
Enables you to
Customize office tabs, Add to built-in tabs
Remove tabs, groups and controls
Add to Office menu, Override built-in UI
Group
Tab
Control
Ribbon

10. XML-based Customisation Support
Ribbon XML structure requires a specific hierarchy
For example:
<customUI xmlns=" onLoad="OnLoad">
<ribbon>
<tabs>
<tab idMso="TabAddIns">
<group id="MyGroup"
label="My Group">
<toggleButton id="toggleButton1"
size="large"
label="My Button"
screentip="My Button Screentip"
onAction="OnToggleButton1"
imageMso="AccessFormModalDialog" />
</group>
</tab>
</tabs>
</ribbon>
</customUI>

11. Ribbon Customization
Office built-in support for XML-based customization model
VSTO 2005 SE support
Simplifies hookup from .NET via pre-generated classes and sample XML
VSTO v3.0 (Visual Studio 2008) support
Adds full-blown visual designer support
“Export to XML” option
A more robust programming layer inc. events

12. Ribbon Designer
Property Grid
Design Surface
Ribbon Control
Toolbox

13. Custom Task & Actions Panes
VSTO simplifies and speeds up task pane UI design process with visual designers and .NET hookup
Actions Pane
More robust, easier to program alternative to Office’s built-in “Smart Document” technology
Custom Task Pane
The same general idea as Actions Pane, only on the application add-in level, not individual doc

14. Pane UI Customization Actions Pane Custom Task Pane Introduced
VSTO 2005 / Office 2003
VSTO 2005 SE / 2007 Office
When to use
Whenever task pane UI is specific to an individual document or template
Whenever task pane UI is specific to an application feature added by the add-in, regardless of document
Availability
Word document / template
Excel document / template
(both 2003 and 2007)
Word 2007 Add-In
Excel 2007 Add-In
PowerPoint 2007 Add-In
Outlook 2007 Add-In
InfoPath 2007 Add-In

15. Custom Task Panes and Action Panes

16. ActionsPane Architecture
Document Actions Task Pane
VSTO Invisible ActiveX Control
WinForms UserControl (ActionsPane)
TechEd 2002

17. Outlook Form Region Features
New technology in Outlook 2007 for enhancing and replacing Outlook’s built-in forms
Code behind form region is implemented as COM add-in
New controls provide built-in look & feel and data binding to Outlook data

18. 4 Types of Form Regions Adjoining and Separate
Custom and built-in forms
Replacement and Replace-all
Custom forms only
Reading Pane can display all types except Separate

19. Adjoining in Reading Pane

20. Adjoining in Inspector

21. Separate

22. Replacement & Replace-All

23. VS2008 Outlook Form Regions
VSTO eases development of Outlook form regions
Configure form region with a simple, intuitive wizard
Debugging (F5), Intellisense
Import
Use wizard to import Outlook-created OFS file
Controls are referenced & cast to correct name & type
Design
Designer supports WPF and Windows Form controls
Properties window exposes manifest

24. Outlook Form Region

25. Fluent UI Form Region Document- level Actions Pane
Ribbon UI Customization
App-level Custom Task Pane
Excel 2007
Word 2007
Outlook 2007
PowerPoint 2007
InfoPath 2007

26. Word
Content Controls

27. Word Content Controls
New experience for developing structured documents in Word 2007
New UI for developers to access Word Content Controls
Programmable through Word Object Model
Support for XML Mapping

28. Toolbox Support Word content controls available in Toolbox
Increases discoverability of content controls
Drag-and-drop experience

29. Property Grid Support
Easily access the properties and events of the content controls

30. Programming Paradigm Windows Forms style programming model
Generate event handlers
Support for IntelliSense

31. Word Content Controls

32. Two-Way Simple Data Binding
Two methods to data bind
Drag and drop support from Data Sources window
Set up through the property grid

33. UI Feature Availability
VSTO
VSTO 2005 SE
VSTO v3.0
Ribbon
(2007 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook and PowerPoint )
Simplified hookup
Sample XML
Visual designer
Richer programming layer
Export-to-XML option
Actions Pane
(document-level projects only)
Word 2003 (doc, dot)
Excel 2003 (xls, xlt)
Word 2007 (docx/m, dotx/m)
Excel 2007 (xlsx/m, xltx/m)
Custom Task Pane
(2007 versions of Word, Excel, Outlook, InfoPath and PowerPoint)
Outlook Form Region
(Outlook 2007 only)
Configuration wizard
Import from existing
Word Content Controls
Drag n drop controls
Simple data-binding
Lock controls and content

34. Where we’ve been, what’s left
VSTO Overview
Office Ribbon Designer
Custom Task Pane
Action Pane
Outlook Form Region Designer
Word Content Controls
VBA <-> VSTO interop
ClickOnce Deployment

35. Call VSTO from VBA You enable VBA via COM Interop
Interop implemented at design time
You can then call VSTO from VBA with IntelliSense after building the project

36. VBA and VSTO Interop

37. ClickOnce for Office Add-ins
Low-impact deployment mechanism
Self-contained
Solutions installed per user
Prerequisites are installed if the user is an admin
ClickOnce support
Full end-to-end solution installation
Richer version-independent security model
Offline access via the ClickOnce Cache

38. ClickOnce Deployment

39. Summary The rationale for the VSTO architecture
Bring together Office and .NET
Provide a sophisticated developer experience
Provide a solid baseline runtime infrastructure
Office is a true development platform

40. MSDN in the UK Visit http://msdn.co.uk Newsletter Events Screencasts
Blogs

41. Resources Visit the VSTO Developer Center
VSTO Help documentation on MSDN
VSTO Forum
VSTO Team Blog

42. VSTO Design-Time Stack
Excel, Word, Info Path
Info Path
Excel,
InfoPath,
Outlook,
PowerPoint, Visio, Word, Project
Excel,
Outlook,
PowerPoint, Word
SharePoint
IDE Hosting
Separate IDE
Outlook
Workflow
Document
Solutions
Add-ins
Ribbons
Form Regions
Project Templates
Item Wizards
Visual Studio

43. VSTO/A Runtime Stack Office Client Host VSTA Integration
Managed/
Unmanaged Host
Doc-Level Solution
App-Level Add-in
Doc-Level Solution
App-Level
Add-in
VSTO Runtime
VSTA Integration
Doc Task Pane
Host Item
Controls
Win Forms
Controls
Custom Ribbon
Custom Task Pane
Custom Form Region
Common VSTO/A
Runtime
AppDomain Management
Security Enforcement
Deployment and Updating
.NET CLR
Managed Add-in Framework (MAF)
ClickOnce