
The Object Browser reveals all the declarations in VBA syntax. Those help articles are the shortest way to understanding of the object model. When you find an object of interest, you click it and press F1 to get the help article related to this object.

There is a restriction though: it doesn’t search through a method’s parameters. The Object browser allows searching through any or all object models. You can restrict the browser to show the public interfaces of a single object model: use the topmost combo to select, say Outlook, Word, Excel, or MSProject. The Object Browser provides you with public classes, their properties and methods as well as with public enumerations for all object models that the currently open document refers to (use Tools | References to add a new reference). When in the IDE, you choose View / Object Browser in the menu or press F2. If it is the case, please refer to Programmer’s Reference or MSDN. Note that some Office applications, recent ones mainly, do not provide IDE. Having run the host application, you open the environment by choosing the Tools / Macro / Visual Basic Editor menu item or by pressing Alt + F11. However, where does an object model live? The best way to study any Office Object model is the Object browser available in the Visual Basic IDE. Here is one of the most frequently asked questions on the Add-in Express forum: Is it possible to add a custom page to the Tools | Options dialog in Excel? Our standard answer is: It is not possible because the Excel Object Model doesn’t provide any way for this. How to start writing add-ins for Microsoft Office? What problems should you be aware of? How do you deploy the add-in? What tools are available? Is it possible to write an Office add-in that will fulfill my task?įirst off, you are to find out if the Office application you want to use as a host for your add-in provides the features you need. The user is allowed to enable or disable COM add-ins via COM Add-ins dialog: Obviously, this requires administrative privileges.Ī number of other COM interfaces require implementation if your add-in customizes the Office 2007 Ribbon user interface (IRibbonExtesibility), creates custom task panes (ICustomTaskPaneConsumer), and so on. To run for all users on the current PC, Office COM add-ins must be registered in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE. NET developer, Office add-ins are class libraries implementing the IDTExtensibility2 COM interface and registered in an appropriate registry branch in HKEY_CURRENT_USER. Naturally, to be executed in this way add-ins should conform to some rules.įor the.

COM add-ins run within the process of their host application and use programmatic interfaces provided by the host in order to access currently open documents and modify their contents or react to user actions. Starting from version 2000, Office applications allow COM add-ins to customize their user interface with toolbars, menus, context menus, ribbons, task panes etc.
