Posts Tagged ‘VB.NET’

Using custom XML parts in Word add-ins

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 Word document designs, styles and printing

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

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 →

Customizing Microsoft Word ribbons and toolbars: VB.NET, C#

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 →

Word add-in development in Visual Studio: Application and base objects

In this article, the first in a series of Word development topics, I'll cover Microsoft Word application and base objects. And, as is our tradition, I'll provide relevant code samples for Word 2013 - 2000 you can copy and paste into your solutions... Read the rest of this entry →

Developing powerful Outlook add-ins with Visual Studio (VB.NET, C#)

With the recent Beginning Outlook Development series complete, we thought it would be a good idea to do a demo that shows how easy/simple/relatively painless it is to build a powerful Outlook add-in with Visual Studio ... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Outlook calendar (appointment and meeting items)

Yeah sure, email is front and center with Outlook. But right behind it and ready to steal the show is the Outlook calendar. If you aren't looking at email, I bet you are looking at your calendar to see if you can meet at such-and-such time on such-and-such date... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Outlook mail items: how to create, delete, access & enumerate

Mail items are the featured player of Outlook… email! Sure, contacts and appointments are regulars but email receives the most attention. We are addicted to the stuff. And as an Outlook plug-in developer, you need to know the basics.... Read the rest of this entry →

The Outlook UI: Explorer and Inspector Windows. What is customizable?

It can take some time to familiarize yourself and understand the various different components of the Outlook UI. Outlook is made up of windows, panes and forms. The two types of Outlook windows are Explorer and Inspector windows... Read the rest of this entry →

Outlook 2013 add-in development for beginners: Outlook Application & base objects

Working with a new framework takes time as you familiarize yourself with its architecture and best practices. You have to spend time discovering objects, learning what they do, and when it is best to utilize them. For Outlook add-in development (and Microsoft Office development in general), this task can take months due to the number of objects involved... Read the rest of this entry →

Create Office add-ins with Visual Studio 2012 Express

Today I am going to break our long-time tradition of announcing major version releases only with the announcement of the new minor update of Add-in Express for Office and .net. "What is special about this build?" you may ask me. Well, I have the answer. Apart from minor improvements and bug fixes the new build (7.2.4055) adds support for Visual Studio Express 2012 for Windows Desktop... Read the rest of this entry →

Outlook 2013 add-ins and Visual Studio 2012: Getting started for VSTO developers

Today we'll focus on how developers, coming from a Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) background, can get started developing add-ins for Outlook 2013 using Add-in Express and Visual Studio 2012 (C#, VB.NET or C++.NET).... Read the rest of this entry →

Excel 2013 Timeline: creating data visualizations with VB.NET, C#

Now that Microsoft Office 2013 is available, it's time to start digging through the "What's New for Office Developers" topics. I'm not sure where these topics will take us because, with each release of Office, Microsoft touts the various new features and objects available to developers... Read the rest of this entry →

How to preserve the ribbon control state (or, if you develop custom Outlook ribbons…)

If you decide to build an Outlook add-in, you're going to want to customize the user interface. If you start customizing the Outlook user interface, you'll probably build a custom ribbon. If you build a custom Outlook ribbon, you'll want to put some controls on it like a button that toggles, a checkbox, and a drop down control ... Read the rest of this entry →

HowTo: Create add-ins for Office 2007, 2010 and 2013 with a shared ribbon tab

Office developers need to merge the UI of their add-ins into a single ribbon tab. Just imagine the following scenario: a user wants to install a few COM add-ins from the same vendor. Are they going to get a separate ribbon tab for each add-in's UI?... Read the rest of this entry →

How to develop Outlook 2010, 2007, 2003 add-in: Outlook objects and events

We're making our way through this short series covering Outlook add-in development. If you missed the previous parts, I highly recommend them, not just because I wrote. No no… because they are essential to understanding this edition, Part 3... Read the rest of this entry →

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