Microsoft Office XP Developer Object Model Guide

This document consists of object model diagrams for each Microsoft® Office XP application, as well as components available for use within an Office application. The object model diagrams show how the objects in an object model fit together.

An application or component programmatically exposes its functionality through objects. You work with an object by using its properties and methods. Objects are named according to the portion of an application they represent, and they are ordered in a hierarchy. The uppermost tier of each application's object hierarchy typically is occupied by a single object: Application. The Application object represents the application itself, and all other objects for that application are below the Application object. The second tier consists of a high-level categorization of objects. The remaining tiers include a variety of additional objects that are used to access the functionality that the second-tier objects contain.

A group of similar objects can be combined in the hierarchy as a collection. You can work with a member of a collection as a single object or as a member of that collection. For example, the Microsoft® Excel object model exposes the Application object as the top-level object in its object model hierarchy. The Application object has a Workbooks collection that contains a Workbook object for each currently open workbook. Similarly, each Workbook object has a Worksheets collection that represents the worksheets in a workbook, and so on.

Using These Object Model Diagrams

You can use these diagrams as a handy shortcut to finding the object you want to work with and understanding how that object fits into the overall object model exposed by an application.

The following table shows how objects and collections are represented in the diagrams:

This type of item	Is designated this way
Object
Collection

Each diagram contains notes to help you further understand what is depicted. The notes vary from diagram to diagram, but every note includes the name of the type library and its file name, as well as the name of the Help file that contains detailed information about the objects in the object model.

The symbols associated with a diagram indicate special information required to help you understand and work with the objects in the specified object model. Some symbols are used globally throughout the document; the following table explains what these global symbols mean:

See Also

Understanding Office Objects and Object Models | Working with Shared Office Components | Working with Office Applications