This slide deck is for developers who are interested in learning how to program Office using VSTO

1. MSDN Events
Autumn, 2008
Building Powerful Applications for
the Microsoft Office System Using
Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the
Microsoft Office System (VSTO)

2. Session Objectives And Agenda
Designing, Building and Deploying Smart Client Applications on
VSTO 2003, 2005, 2005SE, 2008 (1.0, 2.0 & 2.5, 3.0)
Document-centric solutions in Word and Excel
Add-in Solutions in PowerPoint
Deployment, but not Security…
Demos, Demos, Demos…
Guidance on how to get smart on VSTO

3. That was then…

4. This is now…

5. The 2007 Microsoft Office system
is a unified solutions platform for building
Office Business Applications that make Line-of-
Business systems, enterprise data and workflows
accessible and relevant to users.
• Consists of clients, servers, services and tools
• Provides a single infrastructure for
– Communication & collaboration
– Business Intelligence
– Content management solutions
• Enables developers to bridge information gap between users and
data in back-end enterprise systems
– SQL Server, SAP, ERP, CRM, etc.

6. Visual Studio Tools for Office
AdventureWorks Excel

7. Visual Studio Tools for Office
enables developers to leverage Visual Studio and
the Microsoft Office platform to build scalable
line-of-business solutions based on Microsoft Office
• Makes Office a valuable, first-class project type in Visual Studio
• Enables developers to create & extend Office Business Applications
• Enables developers to leverage key Office UI features and support
collaboration and workflow
• Provides Office developers with the benefits and advantages of the
Visual Studio professional development environment
• Enables developers to leverage existing programming skills
• Allows Developers to leverage their company’s investments in
the Office system

8. Visual Studio Tools for Office
quot;Hello Worldquot; Word

9. Visual Studio Tools for Office Excel
Guided Tour

10. VSTO Deployment Model
• Separation of document, code and assembly
– Code is part of a Visual Studio project
– Only the assembly is deployed with the document
• Assembly is “linked” to the document
– VSTO 2003: Custom properties
– VSTO 2005+: App manifest embedded in document

11. Office Client Development with VSTO
2 Common Application Models
Document-Centric Solutions
MyTaskPane
MyCode
OM
Office Application Solutions (Add-In)
MyMenu
MyCode
OM

12. VSTO 2008 PowerPoint
Document Creation

13. Key VSTO Features
• Visual designers for key UI features
• Workflow & Microsoft SharePoint Support
• Data binding in Word Content Controls
• Application-level add-ins for most Office client apps (both
2003 & 2007)
• Document-level add-ins for Excel & Word 2007
• Improved deployment and security

14. Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
2005 Adventure Works Customer
Sales Dynamic Word Doc Creation

15. The ActionsPane
• Document Actions task pane
– Specific task pane available to document customizations (new in
Word and Excel 2003+)
• ActionsPane
– Programmable object exposed by VSTO 2005 from Excel
Workbook and Word Document classes
– Fully encapsulates an implementation of ISmartDocument
– Provides a Windows Forms-based programming model for
accessing the Document Actions task pane

16. Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)
2005 Excel Win32 Services

17. VSTO Roadmap
Visual Studio 2008 (VSTO v3.0)
Visual designers for key UI features
Workflow & Microsoft SharePoint support
Data-bound Word Content Controls
App-level add-ins for most client programs
(both 2003 & 2007)
Doc-level add-ins for Excel and Word 2007
ClickOnce deployment & security
VSTO 2005 + VSTO 2005 Second Edition
Custom ActionsPane
Host Controls on doc surface
Cached Data in the document
Server-side data processing
App-level add-ins for Outlook
More App-level add-ins
VSTO 2003
Document-level code behind
Brings Microsoft Office into the managed world
Strict security model

18. VSTO Versions & Roadmap
• VSTO 2003 (version 1.0)
– Office 2003 with .NET 1.1
• VSTO 2005 (version 2.0)
– Office 2003 with .NET 2.0
• VSTO 2005 SE (version 2.5)
– Office 2007 with .NET 2.0 & 3.0
• VSTO 2008 (version 3.0)
– Office 2007 with .NET 3.5

19. VSTO 2008 Excel WPF Custom
Orders Spreadsheet Creation

20. Deployment Models
Local/Network
Local/Local
Network/Network
Loading document generallyrequire
Loading document does not requires
generally requires
network access
network access
Users shareto install solution document
Users have personal copy of
document instance
Updates can be made in a made in a
Assembly updates can be central
Users have personal copy of
central location
document
location
Document updates require redistribution
Updates require redistribution

21. Product Team Blogs
• Eric Carter: .NET4Office
http://blogs.msdn.com/eric_carter/
• Peter Torr: Office Development, Security,
Randomness…
http://blogs.msdn.com/ptorr/
• Eric Lippert: Fabulous Adventures in Coding
http://blogs.msdn.com/EricLippert
• Paul Stubbs: Office Development with .NET
http://blogs.msdn.com/pstubbs/
• VSTO Team Blog
http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto/

22. Newsgroups
• VSTO
– microsoft.public.vsnet.vstools.office
– MSDN Forums: VSTO
– http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=
16&SiteID=1.

23. Additional Information
• MSDN Developer Centers
– VS.NET and Office Development
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/office/
– Office Development http://msdn.microsoft.com/office
• Hands-on Labs for VSTO 2005
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?Famil
yID=f2323aaf-fe87-4203-9ed8-
72466566e105&displaylang=en
• VSTO 2005 Web casts
http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/understanding/vsto/multi
media/default.aspx

24. Resources
• VSTO Forum
– http://forums.microsoft.com/msdn/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=1
6
• VSTO-related blogs
– VSTO-related Blog Search –
http://search.live.com/macros/pstubbs/vsto
– Office Zealot Site –
http://www.officezealot.com/VSTO/bloghome.aspx

25. For More Information
• Visit the VSTO Developer Center
– http://msdn.microsoft.com/office/tool/vsto/default.aspx
• VSTO Help documentation on MSDN
– http://msdn2.microsoft.com/library/d2tx7z6d(en-us,vs.80).aspx

26. Summary
• VSTO is the key enabler for the .NET stack to build
Office Business Applications
– Connect documents to live business data
– Provide structure using XML Schemas
– Provide deeper UI integration using the
Document Actions task pane
• VSTO is the tool of choice for professional
developers creating Add-ins & document-centric
solutions for the Office Stack
– Integrated design-time experience
– Developer productivity through programming
model enhancements
– All the power of Visual Studio and the .NET Framework