Working with Office Applications

Each Microsoft® Office XP application exposes an object model with hundreds of different objects, collections of objects, properties, methods, and events that you can take advantage of to build your application.

This section introduces the objects that you will use most often in each of the Office applications. This introduction helps you become immediately productive when you are working with Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) in any Office application or when you are driving another application through Automation (formerly called OLE Automation).

In This Section

  • Developing Office Applications Using VBA
    Create Microsoft® Office XP applications that can range from writing a simple Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) procedure to creating a sophisticated financial analysis and reporting application.
  • The Benefits of Office Programmability
    Quickly and easily build and deploy custom desktop applications and take advantage of the objects exposed by Microsoft® Office XP applications, so custom applications can leverage existing, proven, and tested Office functionality.
  • Office Objects and Object Models
    Integrate the features from two or more Microsoft® Office XP applications into a single application to amplify and focus users' productivity.
  • Working with Shared Office Components
    Search for files, use the Office Assistant, manipulate command bars, read and write document properties, read and write script, and hook add-ins to your Microsoft® Office XP application using a set of shared objects available in all Office applications.
  • Getting the Most Out of Visual Basic for Applications
    Write code that is fast, efficient, easy to read and maintain, and, if possible, reusable with a solid working knowledge of Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) — what features the language includes and what you can do with it.
  • Add-ins, Templates, Wizards, and Libraries
    Create and use COMAddIn objects (a shared Microsoft® Office XP component in the Microsoft® Office XP object library).