Customization, Automation, Addins and Life

The reports of VBA's demise have been greatly exaggerated.

TQuinn — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 21:34:00 GMT

There have been spurious reports in the media saying that VBA is dead. Caused quite a firestorm around here as you might imagine -- 'cause it just plain isn't true. There is an official statement on the VSTO blog here: \ http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto2/archive/2008/01/16/the-reports-of-vba-s-demise-have-been-greatly-exaggerated.asp...(read more)

VSTO Architecture Demo from TechEd and MSDN WebCast

TQuinn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 04:44:00 GMT

Good news here -- for me especially :). The demo code from my VSTO Architecture talk at TechEd and in the recent MSDN WebCast is already (mostly) posted here. My colleague Andrew Whitechapel had written the WPF Control and the WCF service that I used...(read more)

TechEd and MSDN Webcast Demos

TQuinn — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:17:00 GMT

Geez, I'm looking at this blog, and I'm realizing I've only posted once this year, and that post said I would post more often. What a lame-o! Since my last post I have been busy. I've spoken at two TechEds -- in the US in Orlando and in Europe in Barcelona....(read more)

Back Into the Light

TQuinn — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 21:18:00 GMT

And out of the dark... I've been dark for a while now, time to come out and let you know what's been going on. I've been heads down writing code for VSTO v3 and VSTA v2 due to release -- hopefully, no promises -- later this year. The new version of VSTO...(read more)

VSTA and Generics

TQuinn — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 10:10:00 GMT

VSTA has been officially released now, in InfoPath in the 2007 Office System, and for use by third parties in the VS SDK. So we're getting our first batch of feature requests. Far and away the biggest request so far is generic support. Admittedly, generic...(read more)

Outlook 2007 Form Region Sample – Second Edition

TQuinn — Fri, 01 Dec 2006 09:28:00 GMT

Office 2007 is official today, so it is time to update my Form Region Sample. The big difference is new methods on the _FormRegionStartup interface. With input from us here in VSTO, Outlook changed the interface to make it easier to use from VSTO addins...(read more)

Outlook 2007 Form Region Sample

TQuinn — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 02:02:00 GMT

I've finally finished my Form Region Sample for Outlook 2007 that was promised. I've been working on it in earnest for a couple weeks now in my spare time. I am now resisting the urge to continue tweaking it: it is time to lockdown and ship. The urge...(read more)

Back in Redmond

TQuinn — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 02:49:00 GMT

It's good to be home. But we had a great time in Europe and learned a ton. The best thing I learned is that ISVs are using VSTO and using it well. Hopefully they learned from us as well. I have nothing but good things to say about the Frontline program,...(read more)

On the road in Europe

TQuinn — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 22:55:00 GMT

It has been almost two weeks now since I arrived in Europe. As noted, I had hoped to blog more, but with all of the working, sight-seeing, eating, drinking and travelling -- not to mention very intermittent internet availability -- I haven't really had...(read more)

Catching up: Cypress (VSTO 2005 SE), Frontline and more...

TQuinn — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 07:31:00 GMT

Wow, I can't beleive that it has been more than two months since I posted, but the numbers don't lie. It has been an eventful summer. We've been working like dogs on new features that you will be hearing about in the fullness of time. I also had a nice...(read more)

Using Windows Presentation Foundation in VSTO -- with "Cross-bow"

TQuinn — Wed, 12 Jul 2006 02:38:00 GMT

I've been working on this on and off since TechEd. I had a customer ask if it was possible to use WPF (formerly Avalon) in a VSTO Custom Task Pane. It is possible, and we're dealing with CTP (Community Technical Preview) releases on top of beta releases,...(read more)

TechEd 06: Chalk-talk today, MAF 101

TQuinn — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 16:58:00 GMT

I'm doing a "chalk-talk" today at TechEd -- at 3:45 in DEV (Blue area) Theatre 1 in the TLC. The listed subject is Designing Managed Add-ins for Reliability, Security and Versioning, the same subject of the talk Jim and I did at PDC. I've refined the...(read more)

TechEd 06: VSTO 'v3' talk this afternoon

TQuinn — Mon, 12 Jun 2006 15:34:00 GMT

Mike Hernandez and I are speaking today (3:15 in room 153) about VSTO 'v3' and what we are doing with Office 2007. We'll be showing several demos of the new programmability features enabled by the next version of VSTO in Office 2007. VSTO 'v3' will release...(read more)

VSTO 'v3' June CTP can run VSTO 2005 customizations

TQuinn — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 03:12:00 GMT

One of the biggest complaints we had on the February CTP of VSTO v3 was that you couldn't run your VSTO 2005 customizations in Office 2007. I'm happy to say we fixed that problem in the latest CTP for June. What this means is that when you get the VSTO...(read more)

VSTO 'v3' June CTP and WinFX Beta 2

TQuinn — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 01:15:00 GMT

So many of you have noticed that we got a little surprised by WinFX Beta2. The June Customer Technical Preview (CTP) of VSTO 'v3' requires February CTP of the WinFX Runtime Components along with Beta 2 of Office 2007. Well those Windows guys went and...(read more)