Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System

Update Your Blog Readers, We've Moved!

VSTO Team — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 21:09:00 GMT

The Visual Studio Tools for Office team has moved to http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto , and the RSS feed is http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto/rss.xml. We've got a lot more team members set up to blog over there so come on over and join us!

Important Links:

Office Development with Visual Studio Blog

Office Development How Do I Videos

Office Development Screencasts on Channel 9

Out Loud for Outlook: Speech Recognition & Synthesis

VSTO Team — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 00:31:37 GMT

Nathan Carlson developed a creative solution for Outlook 2007 using Visual Studio 2008 (codename Orcas). The Out Loud for Outlook project started as a dogfood testing project last summer. For those of you unfamiliar with the dogfood testing practice at Microsoft, it's a term for testing our own products in real-world solutions while they are still in beta so we can personally experience any problems or bugs. The dogfood tests helped us find and fix dozens of bugs.

Out Loud for Outlook allows you to create a new Outlook rule that reads your designated email out loud when it triggers. You can also use voice commands with a good microphone to open and navigate through your emails.

Nathan recently updated the solution to run on the release version of Visual Studio 2008. The Out Loud for Outlook source code is available for download on the new Code Gallery site.

The sample demonstrates:

Basics of developing an Outlook 2007 Add-in.
Consuming Outlook events.
Accessing e-mails.
Creating a Custom Action for Outlook rules.
Using Speech Synthesis.
Using Speech Recognition.

The Reports of VBA's Demise Have Been Greatly Exaggerated

VSTO Team — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:25:37 GMT

There’s recently been some confusing information circulating about the future of VBA in the press that we want to clear up. The report that the next generation of Office will not contain VBA is untrue – the next generation of the Microsoft Office system will definitely contain all of the functionality that developers and power users expect from VBA.

What is correct is that we will no longer license Visual Basic for Applications to new partners, as previously announced on MSDN. Microsoft has traditionally had two main avenues for VBA. The first, and the one the vast majority of users take advantage of, is that VBA was included as a part of the Microsoft Office system and used for recording macros and automating applications like Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word. Beyond that, Microsoft had a licensing program which enabled third-party ISVs to license VBA to include in their applications. Over the years, a number of partners such as Corel and AutoDesk, have licensed VBA to add application automation functionality to their products. Any existing partner can continue to ship VBA and Microsoft Office will continue to include it.

As noted previously on this blog, one of the most exciting aspects of the release of Visual Studio 2008 is that the functionality for developing applications for Office has now been incorporated into Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. This means that all of the functionality previously in Visual Studio Tools for Office and a large number of enhancements are now available to developers for building enterprise-grade applications on Office. Download a trial version at http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio and check it out for yourself!

Update:

We’re happy to report that the story has been updated and includes a correction at the bottom of the article.

Thanks!

http://www.regdeveloper.co.uk/2008/01/14/office_mac_08_vba/

VSTO Runtime Assembly Name Changes from Beta 2 to RTM

VSTO Team — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 22:11:00 GMT

If you created a project for Microsoft Office 2007 using Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, you will probably see a number of broken assembly references if you open the project in the final release of Visual Studio 2008. This is because most of the assemblies in the version of the VSTO runtime that is used for Microsoft Office 2007 projects were changed after Beta 2.

To fix the errors, replace any broken references to assemblies in the first column of the table below with a reference to the corresponding assembly name in the second column.

Beta 2 name	RTM name
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Common.dll	Microsoft.Office.Tools.Common.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Excel.dll	Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Outlook.dll	Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Word.dll	Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.dll	Microsoft.Office.Tools.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.AddInBase.dll Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Common.dll Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.dll	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.v9.0.dll (three assemblies from Beta 2 were merged into this one)
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument.dll	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument.v9.0.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Runtime.dll	Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Runtime.v9.0.dll

For more information about the purpose of each of these assemblies, see “Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime Overview” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608603(VS.90).aspx. Also, be sure to check out the podcast "Why a VSTO Runtime" at http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto2/archive/2007/07/23/why-a-vsto-runtime.aspx for a brief history of the VSTO runtime and why there are different versions for each release of Microsoft Office.

Hiding and Showing an Adjoining Outlook Form Region

VSTO Team — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 22:51:00 GMT

There is no way to show or hide an adjoining form region at run time. However, you can show and hide a custom task pane at run time. Therefore, if you need to give your users the ability to show and hide a UI panel in an Outlook item, consider using a custom task pane.

The following screen shot shows a custom task pane beneath an adjoining form region. They look very similar at first glance. However, there are a few differences in their behavior and in the way they are implemented - more on that in a moment.

Implementing a Custom Task Pane that Simulates an Adjoining Form Region

To make this work, you need to create a new instance of a custom task pane when each Inspector window opens. To do this, handle an event that is raised when the Inspector window is created, and then create the task pane in the event handler.

You should always create a user interface (UI) element, such as a button, that users can click to display or hide your custom task pane, because Microsoft Office applications do not provide a default way for users to show or hide custom task panes.

For a step-by-step walkthrough that shows you how to show and hide a custom task pane in an Outlook Inspector window by using a button on the Ribbon, see the following topic: Walkthrough: Displaying Custom Task Panes with E-Mail Messages in Outlook.

Adjoining form regions appear at the bottom of an Inspector window. Therefore, to make the custom task pane appear in the same position as an adjoining form region would appear, set the DockPosition property of the CustomTaskPane to msoCTPDockPositionBottom. The following code example shows this:

taskPane.DockPosition = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoCTPDockPosition.msoCTPDockPositionBottom;

Considerations

You should only use a custom task pane in this way if you need to show and hide a panel of information in an Outlook Inspector at run time. If you do not have this requirement, it is much easier to use an adjoining form region.

The following table describes some of the differences between implementing an adjoining form region and using a custom task pane to simulate an adjoining form region:

Task	Custom Task Pane	Outlook Form Region
Adding native outlook controls	Not supported.	Supported.
Showing the UI for Inspectors that are in various display modes (for example: compose mode).	Requires custom code.	Does not require custom code.
Displaying the UI for different types of items (for example: Mail or Task.)	Requires custom code.	Does not require custom code.
Creating the UI when an Inspector opens and disposing the UI when the inspector closes.	Requires custom code.	Does not require custom code. This happens automatically.
Prevent the UI from appearing for derived message classes.	Requires custom code.	Does not require custom code. For more information, see Guidelines for Creating Outlook Form Regions.
Display the UI for all the pages of an Outlook item.	Does not require custom code. This happens automatically.	Not supported. Form regions only appear beneath the default page of an Outlook form.

Resources

To read more about custom task panes, see Custom Task Panes Overview.
For more information about how to create a form region, see How to: Add a Form Region to an Outlook Add-in Project.
To learn about the different ways you can customize the UI of a Microsoft Office application, see Office UI Customization Overview.

Norm E.

Wanted: Feedback on the documentation

VSTO Team — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 04:20:00 GMT

We are working on making the documentation better, but we need your help to do it right. We'd appreciate it if you could take 10 minutes to go to the Visual Studio Content Survey and let us know what you think.

Orcas Beta 2 Deployment Stories

VSTO Team — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 00:19:00 GMT

Hi, my name is Kris Makey, I'm one of the Testers working on the VSTO team.

Over the last year my area has been focused on testing the new Deployment features for "Orcas" Office 2007. It's been a rather hectic year getting every to be just right. Hopefully what you (our customers) are seeing in Beta 2 is just as exciting for you as it is for us. I was hoping I could get a little feedback from you on how you feel about the new deployment and security model.

What are the things you like about the new methods?
What are the things you don't like it?
What sticking points have you come across? Are there changes we made that don't make sense to you?
Have you come across any interesting behaviour?
What interesting deployment scenarios have you tried?

Anyway, I'm curious how this feature is panning out for you, please leave your feedback in our VSTO forum:

http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=2121330&SiteID=1

Kris Makey - SDET

Updated VSTO 2005 SE runtime is available

VSTO Team — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 18:34:00 GMT

An updated VSTO 2005 SE runtime (VSTOR.exe, build .891) is now publicly available for download at:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4468D8CB-B43E-4B09-82F6-8BA3F7B5E935

This update contains a couple of bug fixes in the area of Outlook automation. It also contains a number of updates to support Visual Studio 2008. The Customer Support team is working on a KB describing more details of this update. More on that soon.

Some customizations may stop working after an update to .NET Framework 2.0 is installed

VSTO Team — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 22:58:00 GMT

The Common Language Runtime stores User security policy in a location based on the CLR version number. Updates to the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 update the CLR version number when they are installed, which causes the CLR to check for policy in a different folder. Because the new folder contains default User security policy, any changes that have been made to User security policy for the earlier version number are hidden.

Changes to default User security policy can include changes to the default permission sets and the addition of code groups to trust particular assemblies or locations.

Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) customizations installed on end user computers that rely on User security policy for trust may stop working after an update to the .NET 2.0 Framework has been installed. If Office attempts to load an application add-in that is not trusted, the loading process fails and the add-in is disabled. VSTO customizations trusted with Machine or Enterprise policy are unaffected.

Visual Studio 2005 sets User security policy on the development computer when you debug a project. Re-opening and re-building your solutions should restore User security policy on your development computer.

A future service pack for the .NET Framework 2.0 will reset the location of User Security policy to the original location used when .NET 2.0 Framework is installed.

Work-around

Follow these instructions to re-enable any disabled VSTO customizations on end user computers.

Repair the customization

Repairing the installation might reapply User security policy and re-enable the customization. In Add or Remove Programs, select the customization and click the Repair option.

Any other changes made to User security policy, for example, changes to the default permission set, will still need to be re-applied by using a different method.

Reapply User Security Policy and Re-enable Add-ins

Follow these steps to enable end users to run VSTO customizations:

1. Reapply User security on end users' computers.

2. Re-enable your add-in on end users' computers, if the add-in has been disabled by Office.

Reapply User Security Policy

Reapply security either by running the appropriate CASPOL commands or by copying the security.config file from its original location to the new location.

The User Security policy file is stored in %appdata%\Microsoft\CLR Security Config\v2.0.50727.nnn. By default, nnn = 42 for Windows XP and 312 for Windows Vista. You can find the actual version of the .NET Framework that is installed by inspecting the version of mscorwks.dll. Right click %windir%\Microsoft.NET\Framework\v2.0.50727\mscorwks.dll and select the Version tab.

Re-enable Add-ins

Excel 2003, PowerPoint 2003, Visio 2003, & Word 2003

· On the “Tools” menu, click “Customize”.

· Click the “Commands” tab in the “Customize” dialog box.

· Click “Tools" in the “Categories” list.

· Drag the “Com Add-Ins…” label from the “Commands” list and drop it between the “Customize…” and “Options….” commands on the "Tools" menu.

· Click "Close".

· Click the new “COM Add-Ins…” command on the “Tools” menu.

· Select the add-ins you want to re-enable in the “COM Add-Ins” dialog box.

· Click “OK”.

Outlook 2003

· On the “Tools” menu, click “Options”.

· Click the “Other” tab in the “Options” dialog box.

· Click the “Advanced Options…” button.

· Click the “COM Add-Ins…” button.

· Select the add-ins you want to re-enable in the “COM Add-Ins” dialog.

· Click “OK”.

Excel 2007, PowerPoint 2007, & Word 2007

· Click the Microsoft Office Button (in the top left corner), and then click “<app-name> Options”.

· Click “Add-Ins” in the “<app-name> Options” dialog box.

· At the very bottom of the “<app-name> Options” dialog box, in the list next to the “Manage” label, click “COM Add-ins”, and then click “Go”.

· Select the add-ins you want to re-enable in the “COM Add-Ins” dialog.

· Click “OK”.

InfoPath 2007, Outlook 2007, & Visio 2007

· On the “Tools” menu, click “Trust Center”.

· Click “Add-ins” in the “Trust Center” dialog box.

· At the very bottom of the “Trust Center” dialog box, in the list next to the “Manage” label, click “COM Add-ins”, and then click “Go”.

· Select the add-ins you want to re-enable in the “COM Add-Ins” dialog box.

· Click “OK”.

Providing Feedback on Next Release of VSTO (in VS 2008 Beta 2)

VSTO Team — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 20:33:00 GMT

I'm hoping many of you are as excited as we are about the upcoming release of VSTO - shipping in Visual Studio 2008 Professional Edition. In this release, we'll have many new exciting features such as the ability to create custom Outlook form regions, support for ClickOne deployment, visual ribbon designer, VBA/VSTO interoperability, and much more.

I also hope that you've had the chance to download the VS 2008 Beta 2, as we'd love to hear from your feedback about your experiences. If you haven't downloaded and tried the VS Beta 2 (aka Orcas), then download today! You can find the download here: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/default.aspx.

If you have tried it, and you'd like to provide us with your feedback then click the Email link on this blog and send us your thoughts.

Some other resources that will help you out are:

VSTO Beta Hands-on Labs: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/virtuallabs/aa740390.aspx

VSTO Developer Center: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/office/aa905533.aspx

VSTO Forum: http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/showforum.aspx?forumid=16&siteid=1

Also, great blog post here that summarizes lots of resources: http://blogs.msdn.com/mithund/archive/2007/08/01/vsto-resources.aspx

I hope you have a great experience with the the VS 2008 Beta 2, and please be sure to tell us about your experiences.

Thanks,

Steve Fox

Program Manager