Mike Hernandez Blog

Update for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (VSTO 2005 Second Edition) Now Available!

MikeH — Fri, 20 Jul 2007 04:47:00 GMT

Windows Vista vastly improves overall quality, security, and reliability as compared to previous versions of Windows. Though there are tremendous investments in Windows Vista to ensure backward compatibility, some system enhancements, such as User Account Control, make Windows Vista behave differently from previous versions of Windows. These enhancements affect development of Microsoft Office 2003 add-ins with Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition. This update fixes those issues.

Please note that this update does not install a full version of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition.

You can download the update from here.

Thanks!

Mike Hernandez

VSTO Team at Tech Ed 2007 Orlando

MikeH — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 08:06:00 GMT

The VSTO Team is at Tech Ed!

I’m sure most of you are aware that Tech Ed is going on now, even as we speak, in Orlando, Florida. What you might not know, however, is that several members of the VSTO team are at the event. They are presenting breakout sessions and Chalk Talks; they’ll be at the Ask the Experts activity; and they’ll be at the product booth throughout the entire event.

So who is there?

Thomas “TQ” Quinn – Principal Architect

Paul Stubbs – Senior Program Manager

Christin Boyd – Customer Program Manager

Steve Fox – Customer Program Manager

McLean Schofield – Programmer Writer

Brian Goldfarb, Group Product Manager in the Developer Marketing Team, presented a great VSTO demo during Bob Muglia’s keynote speech on the first day of the event. You can see a video of that keynote in its entirety here. Brian comes out about an hour and 11-12 minutes into the session.

Be sure to drop by the VSTO product booth and ask for a copy of the new VSTO Fact Sheet. It’s loaded with cool information about VSTO, links to VSTO-related resources, and screen shots of the upcoming VSTO 3.0 in action.

A side note: I’m sure some of you who have been at previous Tech Eds are wondering, “Why aren’t you here, Mike?” The answer is that, sadly, this is the first Tech Ed I’ve missed in a long time. I was unable to attend this year’s Tech Ed because I’m scheduled to speak next week at the Dutch Dev Days 2007 event in Amsterdam, and then at the Irish VSTO User Group Tour the following week. But be of good cheer – I’ll be sure to raise a pint of Guinness on your behalf while I’m in Ireland! J

Until next time…

Announcing the Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map

MikeH — Wed, 06 Jun 2007 07:43:00 GMT

The Microsoft Office Interactive Developer Map is a Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) application that helps developers visualize the different programs, servers, services, and tools that will help them build solutions. It allows them to drill down to each product and technology and learn about new features, objects, Web services, namespaces, and schemas required to extend Microsoft Office and build custom Office Business Applications (OBAs).

VSTO 2005 SE "Visual How To" Videos

MikeH — Fri, 18 May 2007 20:10:00 GMT

Hi everybody!

I just wanted to let you know that there are some cool VSTO 2005 SE "Visual How To" videos in the Office Solutions Development section of the MSDN Library. Here are the links for your convenience.

Visual How Tos

Adding Custom Task Panes to 2007 Office Applications Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE
Automating a Word 2007 Document Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE Ribbon Support
Automating PowerPoint 2007 Using a Custom Task Pane
Binding Data to User Controls in Excel Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE

Please let us know how you like these videos and what other topics you'd like to see by posting your feedback in the VSTO Forum.

Thanks!

Mike Hernandez

VSTO Screencast: Extend your VBA with .NET!

MikeH — Thu, 10 May 2007 09:57:00 GMT

There is a new VSTO screencast on the MSDN Channel 9 site.

Here's the link: http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=306413

Here are the details:

Visual Studio "Orcas" makes it very easy for your existing VBA solutions to call Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) methods! By setting the "EnableVbaCallers" and "ReferenceAssemblyFromVbaProject" project properties to TRUE, VSTO automatically adds the necessary code spit and references to your VBA project. Then you're free to mix managed .NET code with VBA script! Preserve your investment in VBA and amaze your friends as you effortlessly call VSTO using VBA's IntelliSense.

Join Eric Schnepp, Principal Program Manager in the VSTO team in this screencast to see how it all works.

I hope you enjoy it!

Mike Hernandez

VSTO: My Favorite Feature Blog Series

MikeH — Tue, 01 May 2007 00:27:00 GMT

Visual Studio Tools for Office is the premiere development tool for building Office Business Applications. More features and RAD tools are added to VSTO as it evolves and some of these items are becoming fast favorites of the VSTO product team and third-party VSTO experts alike. Take a look at this blog series as it unfolds over the next six weeks and discover the favorite features and tools of team members such as Eric Carter, Paul Stubbs, John Durant, and Kathleen McGrath, in addition to third-party VSTO experts such as Ken Getz, Paul Ballard, and Tim Huckaby.

Blog Entry Schedule

Date	Blogger	Blog Address	Feature
02-May	Ken Getz Eric Carter	http://www.mcwtech.com/cs/blogs/keng http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/default.aspx	Globals Class & Ribbon Support Outlook Form Regions
09-May	Kathleen McGrath	http://blogs.msdn.com/kathleen	Ribbon Designer
16-May	Paul Stubbs	http://blogs.msdn.com/pstubbs	Deployment
23-May	Paul Ballard	http://weblogs.asp.net/paulballard	Custom Task Panes
30-May	Eric Carter Tim Huckaby	http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/default.aspx http://blogs.interknowlogy.com/timhuckaby/	Click Once PPT add-in support for Ribbon and Task Pane
06-Jun	John Durant	http://blogs.msdn.com/johnrdurant/	Workflow tools
13-Jun	Paul Stubbs	http://blogs.msdn.com/pstubbs	MOSS
20-Jun	Tim Huckaby Kathleen McGrath	http://blogs.interknowlogy.com/timhuckaby/ http://blogs.msdn.com/kathleen	Mining a SQL database with VSTO Word Content Controls
27-Jun	John Durant	http://blogs.msdn.com/johnrdurant/	VBA => .NET Interop
03-Jul	Paul Ballard	http://weblogs.asp.net/paulballard	MOSS 2007 Integration

Links to VSTO: Straight from the Experts Webcast Series

MikeH — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 04:31:00 GMT

I just wanted to remind everyone that our series is starting on April 19th with VSTO expert Ken Getz.

Below you'll see links to the first three webcasts in the series. You can also find them (and links to future webcasts) in the MSDN Webcast Calendar.

Thanks!

Mike Hernandez
Product Manager, VSTO

MSDN Webcast Calendar

VSTO Straight from the Experts: Ken Getz

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032334194%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e

VSTO Straight from the Experts: Robert Green

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032334206%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e

VSTO Straight from the Experts: Tim Huckaby

http://www.microsoft.com/events/EventDetails.aspx?CMTYSvcSource=MSCOMMedia&Params=%7eCMTYDataSvcParams%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ID%22+Value%3d%221032334209%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22ProviderID%22+Value%3d%22A6B43178-497C-4225-BA42-DF595171F04C%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22lang%22+Value%3d%22en%22%2f%5e%7earg+Name%3d%22cr%22+Value%3d%22US%22%2f%5e%7esParams%5e%7e%2fsParams%5e%7e%2fCMTYDataSvcParams%5e

"VSTO: Straight from the Experts" Webcast Series

MikeH — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 01:10:00 GMT

Well, it's been a long time since I posted an entry into this blog. It's been a pretty wild wide for me this past year, and I can honestly say that I'm finally getting used to my job as the VSTO Product Manager. But I digress...

I'm pleased to announce the "VSTO: Straight from the Experts" webcast series. It will be on MSDN during April and May. I'll be interviewing several VSTO experts, asking them to discuss solutions they've built with VSTO and talk about the things they think you should know when you work with VSTO.l

I've included the current schedule below for your convenience. I look forward to "seeing" you at one of the webcasts. Please be sure to spread the word and let your friends and colleagues know about this series.

Until next time...

Mike Hernandez

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

April 19, 9:00 – 10:00 PST
Ken Getz
MCW Technologies

VSTO Straight from the Experts Series – Ken Getz

Join VSTO Product Manager Mike Hernandez as he interviews VSTO expert Ken Getz in this webcast. Learn about some of the experiences Ken has had using VSTO and see an example of the types of solutions he’s built. Finally, learn the top three things Ken thinks you should know when you work with VSTO.

May 3, 12:00 to 13:00 PST

Robert Green

MCW Technologies

VSTO Straight from the Experts Series – Robert Green

Join VSTO Product Manager Mike Hernandez as he interviews VSTO expert Robert Green in this webcast. Learn about some of the experiences Robert has had using VSTO and see an example of the types of solutions he’s built. Finally, learn the top three things Robert thinks you should know when you work with VSTO.

May 9, 12:00 – 13:00 PST

Tim Huckaby

InterKnowlogy

VSTO Straight from the Experts Series – Tim Huckaby

Join VSTO Product Manager Mike Hernandez as he interviews VSTO expert Tim Huckaby in this webcast. Learn about some of the experiences Tim has had using VSTO and see an example of the types of solutions he’s built. Finally, learn the top three things Tim thinks you should know when you work with VSTO.

May 15, 13:00 – 14:00 PST

Paul Ballard

Rochester Consulting

VSTO Straight from the Experts Series – Paul Ballard

Join VSTO Product Manager Mike Hernandez as he interviews VSTO expert Paul Ballard in this webcast. Learn about some of the experiences Paul has had using VSTO and see an example of the types of solutions he’s built. Finally, learn the top three things Paul thinks you should know when you work with VSTO.

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System is now available!

MikeH — Fri, 24 Nov 2006 11:32:00 GMT

I’m very pleased to announce the release of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition, or VSTO 2005 SE for short), a fully-supported, free add-on to Visual Studio 2005 that empowers developers to build applications targeting the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

For further details about VSTO 2005 SE, please see the post on the VSTO Forum by KD Hallman, General Manager of the VSTO Team.

(Yes, I know we already announced this at Tech Ed Barcelona and Dev Connections Las Vegas earlier this month, but better late than never! <vbg> I’m still getting used to this whole blogging business and I just remembered that I hadn’t posted my announcement.)

Enjoy!

Mike Hernandez

Product Manager, VSTO

Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the Microsoft Office System Beta is now available!

MikeH — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 21:16:00 GMT

I’m very pleased to announce the beta release of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for the 2007 Microsoft Office System (Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition Beta, or VSTO 2005 SE Beta for short), a fully-supported, free add-on to Visual Studio 2005 that empowers developers to build applications targeting the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

For full details of the release, please see the post on the VSTO Forum by KD Hallman, General Manager of the VSTO Team.

Enjoy the beta!

Mike Hernandez

Tech Ed 2006 - Days Three to Five - June 14-16, 2006

MikeH — Sun, 18 Jun 2006 07:22:00 GMT

Work and fun - that's what happens at Tech Ed every year!

It's so great to be able to speak to so many customers at on etime in one place. We really get to learn a lot about what they're doing with our products, the difficulties they encounter, and the successes they attain. It never ceases to amaze me just how passionate people are about what they are doing and how our products help them to do their jobs. It's just great.

One of the things I notice the most about Tech Ed is how fast time flies. I just can't believe it's all over - it went by so fast! I spent quite a bit of time at our product booth and in our cabana area, and I had some great conversations with a number of attendees. I noted that there were a number of people who were new to Visual Studio Tools for Office, and it occurs to me that we still need to get the word out to a much broader audience.

As is typical when we speak to folks about VSTO for the first time, they were very impressed with what our current product could do. I spoke to a number of people who were impressed with our data binding capabilities, and they seemed to be quite excited about trying VSTO out on their projects. A lot of folks who dropped by our booth were very impressed and interested in our plans for VSTO V3, and many were looking forward to trying out "Cypress", our add-on pack for Visual Studio that allows developers to develop add-in projects for some of the major Office 2007 applications.

Although attendees work hard at attending as many sessions as possible and learning as much as they can during the week, they are also really good at partying and having fun. I saw many of them at various parties that I attended, and you could tell that everyone was having a great time. I heard lots of great stories, lots of loud laughing and even a few spirited debates. My favorite time was at the jam session. It was really fun getting up and performing with some of the attendees, a few of which I knew from last year's Tech Ed. My only regret is that the jam session lasted only until Wednesday evening - I had originally planned on participating in the jam sessions throughout the end of the week. Bummer. <g>

This year's Tech Ed was a success for our team, and we've got some great feedback that we can take back to the team. Kudos to Kathleen, Mei, McLean, Paul and TQ for the great work they did talking to customers all week, and additional kudos to Paul and TQ for the great sessions they delivered early in the week.

Tech Ed may be over, but you'll be sure to see me and other members of the team at other events throughout the year. On behalf of the team, I'd like to thank everyone who attended Tech Ed this year and an additional thank you to those of you who came by to see us.

See you again soon...

Tech Ed 2006 – Day Two – Tuesday, June 13

MikeH — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:12:00 GMT

Ahh, Starbucks in the morning – there’s nothing like it. I’m was quite a happy camper this morning because I actually had time to get my beloved Tall-Light-Room-Americano before I caught the bus. Life is good…

We had another good day at the event. Our team spoke to quite a few attendees and we got to demonstrate VSTO’s cool features, both in VSTO 2005 and the VSTO V3 CTP. I always enjoy watching people’s faces when they see just what they can do with VSTO and how easy it is for them to do it. The best feeling is when you help someone visualize a new and better way to do something that they are currently doing. You can literally see the light turn on in his mind and almost hear him saying “Oh yeah, I really could do it that way.”

We also spent a lot of time introducing folks to VSTO. It seems that there were a number of them who had not heard of it before, and they seemed keenly interested in why they should consider creating Office-bases solutions and how they could use VSTO to develop those solutions. I was really happy to hear some of them say that they would download the Visual Studio Team System Trial Version in order to try out VSTO for themselves.

After the event closed for the day, we all attended the Addison-Wesley author party. I’ve been an author for them for 11 years and two other team members are currently working on their own book projects. (I am the author of Database Design for Mere Mortals and co-author of SQL Queries for Mere Mortals.) We had a really great time and were especially happy to have the chance to meet more of the editorial staff. I sort of wandered into the lion’s den, though – I was asked if I was ready to start thinking about doing a third edition of my book. Hmmm – let’s talk about this sometime next year.

After the Addison Wesley party, we all attended the Office MVP Party. It was a great party that included a DJ with music. Given that we were in Boston, I did take advantage of the seafood they had on the menu (clams, lobster and such). We got to talk with some of the MVPs, and some of our team actually tripped the light fantastic and did a little dancing themselves.

Finally, TQ, Paul and I went to the Tech Ed Jam Session. As always, I had a great time and I got to see a lot of friends that I had not seen since last year’s Tech Ed Jam Session. I was sad to hear that this year’s jam session schedule was shortened to three days, and I was really glad that I had decided to participate in the jam this evening. The week is still young, however, and there are still places where I may yet be able to play a few more tunes.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for my thoughts on Day Three…

Tech Ed 2006 – Day One – Monday, June 12

MikeH — Tue, 13 Jun 2006 06:50:00 GMT

It was a bright sunny day in Boston today. It’s too bad because I spent most of the time inside the Boston Convention Center. I have to admit that I did have a lot of fun, though.

I spent most of the morning with my colleagues from the Trinity team answering customer’s questions at our VSTO product booth. A number of people came by to chat with us at the booth, and I was surprised at how many were just hearing of VSTO. They certainly seemed interested, however, as they peppered us with questions about the nature of VSTO, how they might use it for their business problems, and what the future holds for the product. We answered their questions and showed a number of demos, and they seemed to leave with an even greater interest in using VSTO and an eagerness to try it out for themselves.

Later in the afternoon, TQ (Thomas Quinn) and I presented our session on what’s coming up in VSTO “V3”. We had about 150-175 people in our session, and they seemed very keen about learning what we have in store for the next version of VSTO. The crowd responded very approvingly when we told them that VSTO “V3” would provide app-level add-in support for all of the major applications in the Office System suite. They also were pleased to hear of our support for new Office 2007 features such as customizable ribbons and custom task panes. A few folks in the crowd did wonder why we were not supporting Microsoft Project or Microsoft Small Business edition. We indicated that our support for the major Office applications was based on broad customer feedback and requests.

We also took the opportunity to announce “Cypress”, the add-on pack for Visual Studio 1005 that will allow developers to create app-level add-ins for the “big six” Office applications – Word, Excel, Outlook, InfoPath, PowerPoint and Visio. It will also provide customization support Office 2007’s ribbon, custom task pane and Outlook form region features. The crowd was quite happy to hear that “Cypress” would be released at the same time as Office 2007.

TQ and I fielded attendee questions at the end of our session and then spent the next few hours at the VSTO product booth meeting with more attendees and answering their questions. All in all, I’d have to say it was a very good day for the VSTO team.

Due to the Attendee Reception that occurred after the day’s main sessions, I was unable to make this evening’s jam session. I do plan to be there tomorrow night, and I’m certainly hoping to be able to perform with many of my friends and Tech Ed attendees.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for my thoughts on Day Two…

Tech Ed 2006 – Day Zero - Sunday, June 11

MikeH — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 20:51:00 GMT

Well, I’m here in beautiful downtown Boston for Tech Ed 2006, and I can’t wait for the week to begin. Thousands of people from all over the world have flown in to attend and participate in the event, and I’m quite certain there will be many sessions that will be filled to capacity.

Four members of the Trinity team are here as well – Thomas Quinn (TQ), Paul Stubbs, Kathleen McGrath, and Mei Liang. Also joining us from the User Education team is McLean Schofield. TQ, Paul and I will be presenting breakout sessions during the week, and we’ll all be manning the product booth and Ask the Experts areas. If you’re in town attending Tech Ed, please be sure to drop by, say hi, and learn about Visual Studio Tools for Office and Visual Studio Tools for Applications.

I’m also going to participate in the evening Jam Sessions, and I’ll usually be there between 9:00 and 10:30. For those of you who may not know, I’ve played guitar for over 30 years and used to be a professional musician for 15 years prior to getting into the computer field. I still continue to play to this day, particularly with the two bands that I formed at Microsoft. As you may guess, the jam session is one of the highlights for me during Tech Ed. But I digress…

TQ and I participated in the MVP Roundtable sessions that were held this afternoon at the Westin Copley Hotel. We spoke to a number of MVPs from around the world, and fielded questions about VSTO. The MVPs told us how much they liked VSTO, provided us with some great feedback for the next version, and assured us they would be attending our sessions to learn more about how the next version will support Office 2007. I think we’ll have our hands full during the question and answer portion of our sessions. <vbg>

I’m really impressed by the “The Learning Center” (TLC) area, which is a new concept being introduced at Tech Ed this year. Based on lessons learned from past Tech Eds, the TLC is the home for the product booths, partner booths, hands-on labs, and Ask the Experts areas. No longer will attendees have to trudge six miles to go from the product booth area to the hands-on labs. It will be a two minute walk, tops. I’m sure this new layout will enable attendees to communicate and network with each other much more easily than in past years.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for my thoughts on Day One…

P.S.: You may have noticed that I posted this a day late. I tried accessing the Internet from my hotel room last night with no success. Lucky for me that I have access in the Speaker Lounge. <g>

I'll see you at Tech Ed in Boston!

MikeH — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 00:40:00 GMT

I'm certainly looking forward to next week, as I'm going to be participating in Tech Ed. It seems to be a yearly tradition that I'm certainly happy to continue this year.

Thomas Quinn (a.k.a. "TQ" and the Technical Architect for the team) and I are going to present a session on a roadmap for VSTO. Paul Stubb (a program manager on the VSTA team) will be doing a presentation on (what else?) Visual Studio Tools for Applications. Also on board will be Kathleen McGrath (a Program Manager on the team) and Mei Liang (one of our testers), and all of us will be manning the product booth and Ask the Experts areas.

I'm also going to do what I've done for the past three Tech Eds - particpate in the evening Jam Session! :>) I certainly hope to see you there.

Well, that's it for now. See you in a couple of days...

MikeH