Getting Started (How Do I in Visual Studio Tools for Office)

This page provides links to Help for installing Microsoft Office primary interop assemblies and getting started with Visual Studio Tools for Office. To see other categories of key tasks covered by Visual Studio Tools for Office Help, see How Do I in Visual Studio Tools for Office.

Getting Started

• Getting Started Programming Document-Level Customizations for Excel
  Describes what you need to know to start creating Microsoft Office Excel customizations.

• Getting Started Programming Document-Level Customizations for Word
  Describes what you need to know to start creating Microsoft Office Word customizations.

• Getting Started Programming Application-Level Add-Ins
  Describes what you need to know to start creating Microsoft Office application add-ins.

• Getting Started Writing Code
  Describes how to view the code while programming your Office solutions and provides links to examples of Office automation code.

Installation

• Installing Visual Studio Tools for Office
  Provides information about versions of Visual Studio that support Visual Studio Tools for Office.

• How to: Install Visual Studio Tools for Office to Develop for the 2007 Microsoft Office System
  Provides information and step-by-step instructions for installing Visual Studio Tools for Office to develop for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

• How to: Install Visual Studio Tools for Office to Develop for Microsoft Office 2003
  Provides information and step-by-step instructions for installing Visual Studio Tools for Office to develop for Microsoft Office 2003.

• How to: Install Visual Studio Tools for Office to Develop for SharePoint Workflow Project Templates
  Provides information and step-by-step instructions for installing Visual Studio Tools for Office to develop for SharePoint workflow projects.

• How to: Install the Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime
  Provides information for installing the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime on each end user's computer

• How to: Install Office Primary Interop Assemblies
  Provides steps for installing the required Office primary interop assemblies on end user computers.

Creating Projects

• How to: Create Visual Studio Tools for Office Projects
  Describes how to use the Visual Studio Tools for Office Project Wizard to create a project.

• How to: Set Up Configuration Information for an Office Solution
  Describes how you can manually add a .config file to your Office project.

• Combining VBA and Document-Level Customizations
  Explains how you can use Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code in solutions that also use managed code.

• Walkthrough: Creating a New Office Project Using Visual Studio Project Automation
  Demonstrates how to create a macro that uses the Visual Studio object model to automate the creation of a Visual Studio Tools for Office project.

Primary Interop Assemblies

• Office Primary Interop Assemblies
  Provides information about developing managed code with the primary interop assembly and the Microsoft Office COM-based object model.

• How to: Install Office Primary Interop Assemblies
  Provides steps for installing the required Office primary interop assemblies on end user computers.

• How to: Target Office Applications Through Primary Interop Assemblies
  Describes how to use managed code to Automate Office applications by adding a reference to the appropriate component manually.

• The Variable missing and Optional Parameters in Office Solutions
  Explains how optional parameters work in methods and parameters exposed by the primary interop assemblies.

Samples

• Document-Level Samples
  Contains links to sample applications that demonstrate how to create document-level customizations that take advantage of features available in Microsoft Office.

• Word-Based Samples
  Contains links to sample applications that take advantage of the document creation capabilities available in Word.

• Samples That Use Excel and Word
  Contains links to sample applications that demonstrate using Excel and Word to create solutions in Visual Studio.

• Excel-Based Samples
  Contains links to sample applications that illustrate how to create business solutions that take advantage of the data collection and analysis capabilities available in Excel.

• Application-Level Samples
  Contains information about sample applications that demonstrate how to use Visual Studio Tools for Office to create application-level add-ins that take advantage of features available in Microsoft Office applications.

• Ribbon Controls Sample
  Demonstrates how to create a custom tab that appears on the Ribbon of a Microsoft Office Excel worksheet.

• ServerDocument Sample
  Provides a graphical user interface and a command-line interface that enable you to view and modify a document's application manifest, and to view and modify data that is cached in the document.

Walkthroughs and Common Tasks

• Walkthroughs Using Word
  Provides links to step-by-step instructions for common scenarios that demonstrate ways you can use Visual Studio Tools for Office to automate Word projects.

• Walkthroughs Using Excel
  Provides links to step-by-step instructions for common scenarios that demonstrate ways you can use Visual Studio Tools for Office to automate Excel solutions.

• Data Walkthroughs (Visual Studio Tools for Office)
  Provides links to step-by-step instructions for common scenarios that demonstrate how to work with data in document-level customizations.

• UI Customization Walkthroughs
  Provides links to step-by-step instructions for common scenarios that demonstrate how to work with actions panes and smart tags in document-level customizations.

• Security and Deployment Walkthroughs
  Provides links to step-by-step instructions for common scenarios that demonstrate how to set security policy to allow your solution to run, and how you can deploy your solution.

• Common Tasks in Office Programming
  Helps you quickly find the answers to common questions about programming with Visual Studio Tools for Office.

What's New

• What's New in Visual Studio Tools for Office
  Discusses what is new in Visual Studio Tools for Office.

• VBA and Visual Studio Tools for Office Solutions Compared
  Provides a basic comparison between VBA and managed code extensions and discusses situations in which you might want to use each.

• Office Documents in the Visual Studio Environment Overview
  Introduces you to working with documents and workbooks in the Visual Studio designer, and discusses how the experience has been made as close as possible to the experience of working with Windows Forms.

See Also

Concepts

How Do I in Visual Studio Tools for Office