‘HowTo samples’ category archive
Working with Excel tables & ranges: VB.NET code samples
Ty Anderson | October 24th, 2013
Microsoft Excel, being a spreadsheet application, automatically brings structure to your thinking. You can build models to help you think through just about anything. You can organize your data and create lists of any imaginable type. In fact, most apps in the mobile app stores these days can easily be replaced by Excel files. Even games... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Excel charts: how to change a chart style, color or type programmatically
Pieter van der Westhuizen | October 22nd, 2013
Adding charts in your Excel add-ins using the Excel object model is easier than you might think. In this article we'll take a look at how to insert charts programmatically, format their style and colors as well as how to change the chart's display by filtering its data... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Excel cell values, formulas and formatting: C# code samples
Pieter van der Westhuizen | October 15th, 2013
If you look at the title of this article, it almost sums up what Microsoft Excel is. Without cells, values and formulas, you just cannot get much done in Excel. Of course everything is contained within worksheets and workbooks and you can do so much more with Excel, but at the heart of it all lies cells... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Excel workbooks and worksheets: VB.NET examples
Ty Anderson | October 9th, 2013
We've covered how to write code that automates Excel base objects. Today, I want to focus on the Excel workbook file and its worksheets. Let's take a look at how to perform some useful tasks with these two objects... Read the rest of this entry →
Customizing Excel main menu, context menus, and Backstage view
Ty Anderson | October 2nd, 2013
Today we will tackle the issue of customizing Excel menus and back stage view. As you know, there are multiple versions of Excel "in-play" and it is wise to architect your solutions to work seamlessly with them. Add-in Express provides the tools, but it helps to know how to use them... Read the rest of this entry →
Customizing the Excel User Interface: What is and isn’t customizable
Ty Anderson | September 25th, 2013
Anytime Excel runs into a business process, users discover they require more of Excel. They can have more too by extending Excel via its API. Today, I'll cover what you user interface customizations are available to you when developing Excel add-ins with Add-in Express... Read the rest of this entry →
Excel add-in development in Visual Studio: Application and base objects
Ty Anderson | September 23rd, 2013
Today we start a new series to explain the basics (and more) of Excel add-in development. This is going to be serious fun because Excel rocks. Next to Outlook it might be the most popular target of Office add-ins... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Microsoft Word templates: C# sample
Ty Anderson | September 6th, 2013
This is a continuation of the work we did in my previous article. The difference is, we will use a pre-built template for inserting data. Instead of inserting data "willy-nilly", we need to find where to insert it within the document's pre-defined structure... Read the rest of this entry →
Populating Word documents with data from external sources (database, SharePoint, Outlook, etc.)
Ty Anderson | August 30th, 2013
Today, I have three main C# code samples that insert data into Word. Each sample method creates and then goes to town inserting data. It is a simple strategy and works very well to get you started integrating data into Word... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Word document properties, bookmarks, content controls and quick parts
Pieter van der Westhuizen | August 27th, 2013
Even though the object model can be somewhat daunting it gives you amazing flexibility and power over programmatically bending MS Word to your will. In today's article we'll have a look at the Microsoft Word document properties, content controls, quick parts and bookmarks, and how you can access and use these objects in your own add-ins... Read the rest of this entry →
Using custom XML parts in Word add-ins
Ty Anderson | August 23rd, 2013
Custom XML parts are chunks of XML that reside within a Word document. They are not part of the document, per se, because they are not visible to the user. Starting with Office 2007, the Office file formats are XML-based and are comprised of XML parts... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with multiple Microsoft Word documents: C# add-in example
Pieter van der Westhuizen | August 19th, 2013
In today's article we'll take a look at how you can combine information and text from various existing Microsoft Word documents into a single document. We'll create a Word add-in that will allow the user to select and insert different paragraphs from one or more existing Word documents, into another document... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Word document designs, styles and printing
Ty Anderson | August 15th, 2013
Designing Microsoft Word documents is not all that different from designing a web page; you want to keep the content and the design separate. In Word, you keep them separate by utilizing styles. Styles include a plethora of design elements (e.g. font, borders, paragraph format, etc). Let's have some fun with them via code... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Word document content objects
Ty Anderson | August 7th, 2013
Microsoft Word is about the authoring of documents. Documents contain pages, paragraphs, sentences and more. Today, I want to wade into the waters of manipulating Word document content. The plan is to get your feet wet by providing an overview of the key objects along with code samples... Read the rest of this entry →
Building custom task panes for Word 2013 – 2003
Pieter van der Westhuizen | July 29th, 2013
When building a Word add-in using Add-in Express, you have a choice of either creating a standard Office task pane or using the Add-in Express advanced Office task panes. In this article, we'll take a look at both approaches.... Read the rest of this entry →
Customizing Microsoft Word ribbons and toolbars: VB.NET, C#
Ty Anderson | July 26th, 2013
A popular user interface customization is custom ribbons and custom toolbars. I think you know what these are and we'll cover how to create both of them for Microsoft Word.
We'll start with Ribbon and work our way back to the legacy toolbars (aka CommandBars).
... Read the rest of this entry →