Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 is not finished yet, but we do have a beta version of the documentation ready for you to read!  You can learn about some of the features that you'll see later this year when we release SP1. 

I recommend starting with reading about a totally new feature that we put into SP1 that allows you to extend Word documents and Excel Workbooks at runtime from an Application-Level Add-in.  Here is the link to the Beta of the documentation:

http://vs2008sp1docs.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ms334311.aspx

You'll be able to create objects and respond to events including:

• Host Controls
• ListObjects
• Smart Tags
• Word Content Controls
• and Events such as DocumentBeforeSave

Only some of the new deployment features have been documented so far.  You can read about one of the new deployment features in the Event Logging (2007 System) page in the SP1 documentation here:

http://vs2008sp1docs.msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/ms331997.aspx

Starting in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1), you can use the event viewer in Windows to see error messages that are captured by the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime when you install or uninstall Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions. You can use these messages from the event logger to resolve installation and deployment problems.

The Beta version of the Service Pack is only getting distributed to about a thousand beta testers who have great reputations for submitting clear feedback and bug reports.  I hope this little peek at the documentation will get you excited about what's coming later this summer in Service Pack 1.

-Christin Boyd, Program Manager