Creating custom content panes in VSTO? - vsto

Is there any way to create content panes in VSTO similar to the content add-ins in Office.js?
I would like to create content panes with WPF content in them but I was not able to find any equivalent of Office.js' content add-ins in VSTO. Task panes are not enough as I need them to be freely and flexibly positioned by the user inside a document.
I would need them both in Excel workbooks and in PowerPoint slides, preferably in Office 2013, but in Office 2016 would also be suffice.

Nope. Task panes (for application-level addins) and Actions Panes (for document-level) are the closest equivalent.

Related

Permanently append Customized Ribbons to PowerPoint file

I have written 2 Macros in PowerPoint and added the Macros to a customized ribbon named 'My Ribbon' to make those macros available at a click of a button. The only problem is the Ribbon disappears when someone else opens the PowerPoint on a different computer. The macros stay with the file but the customized ribbons do not and we have to create another customized ribbon, and place both macros to the ribbon every time we share the file across our drive.(Which is quite annoying)
I want to permanently append the customized ribbon to the PowerPoint so that anyone who opens the PowerPoint will be able to see the personalized ribbon with both Macros already on their version of PowerPoint.
VBA macros are not designed for distributing the code on multiple PCs. If you need to get a solution which can be installed on other PCs you need to develop an add-in. That's exactly they were invented for. Moreover, you can create an installer for the add-in. It will be installed as other applications on your PC. See Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for PowerPoint to get started.
If you choose to stay with VBA macros, you will have to edit the open xml document. See Customize the Word Ribbon User Interface for more information. The process is common for almost all Office applications (Outlook does't support that).
You could use such a program like Ribbon Editor to customize the Ribbon for your pptm file only. (No need for an AddIn it you want it deployed only with the file)

Backstage view in outlook 2007

I am developing an outlook 2007 add-in which is based on an existing outlook 2010 plugin. I managed to get most of the features working, because most of them were backwards compatible. However there are some I could not, because 2007 simply did not have certain features. \
Backstage view
Main ribbon
My question is - what would you suggest for an equivalent interface? Where would you put in outlook 2007 something that was in backstage view in 2010?
After much deliberation I decided to use a custom menu. All features available through the backstage view in 2010 will be converted to menu items in the custom menu in Outlook 2007.
Also buttons from the main ribbon will become items in the same custom menu.
This solution, while not as elegant as Fluent UI will work, I think, because all of my plugin's functionality will be available from one spot.

Excel VBA: How to turn code into a full on toolbar tool? [duplicate]

I am in the process of creating a VBA add-in for Excel 2010, and I used the "Custom UI Editor for Microsoft Office" tool to create my own ribbon.
However, I would like to give the user the option to load my add-in without displaying the ribbon, or with different parts of the ribbon visible.
With menus, I know you can completely control them programmatically, but ribbons seem to work differently.
Is there a way in VBA to not load my customUI.xml ribbon tabs on startup?
Is there a way to remove items from (or add items to) these tabs at runtime?
here is a whole slew of help on this subject Awesome Ribbon Help. I think points 2 and 3 are of particular interest to you.

Display HTML page in Office 2003 or 2007 task pane via VBA

Is it possible to display an HTML page in an Office 2003 and/or 2007 task pane via VBA?
Background: We have a complicated configuration file that our users maintain in Word (using a real editor is not an option for our audience).
We would like to create several toolbar buttons that display a basic HTML page in a task pane as a form of online help for our users.
The reason we want to use a task pane to display help (vs. an external browser or traditional help engine) is so that the help content is "embedded" in Word vs. displayed via a seperate application. The problem with using a regular browser or help engine to display help is that users have to manually size and position both applications so that they can see them simultaneously and its very easy to "lose" one application when togging between many applications.
We don't want to go down the route of writing a VisualStudio based task pane component - we want to keep things simple (KISS) and encapsulate everything in an easy to distribute Word template file (.dot or dotx.).
Suggestions?
Yes it is possible, see this blog for detailed steps in creating the custom task pane in Excel 2007.
http://blogs.msdn.com/gabhan_berry/archive/2008/08/13/custom-task-panes.aspx

Easiest way to migrate Word 2003 custom macro toolbars into Word 2007?

I have a series of macros and toolbars that I developed for Word 2003. Now that my office is upgrading to Word 2007, I need to migrate them. The macros themselves migrate with zero effort, but the toolbars are a different issue. A random subset of the toolbars show up in the "Add-Ins" ribbon tab, but I haven't found a way to control which ones.
Something that may be a complication is that I deploy the macros by placing a template into a user's Word STARTUP folder (C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Word\STARTUP). While I can add macros from normal.dot into the Quick Access Toolbar, I cannot add macros from this startup template. I'd like a better, more structured layout anyway.
So, what's the easiest way to replicate my custom macro toolbars in Word 2007?
The macros and toolbars that I developed for Word 2003 are in a number of .dot files. I simply put these .dot files into my Startup folder. I restarted Word'07 an wallah, these Macro toolbars appeared in the Add-Ins ribbon.
Good Luck