Creating COM add-ins / plug-ins for Outlook, Excel
Word, PowerPoint  in .NET, VSTO, Delphi

Add-in Express™
Express your projects

Add-in Express for Microsoft Office - .NET, VSTO and VCL editions comparison matrix

A complete feature list for each product is presented in the table below. Besides that, you can find a wealth of information in the following article from our technical blog: Add-in Express for Office and .net / VSTO / VCL – Which product do I choose? In the article you will find the most comprehensive and competent analyses of all pros and corns for each Add-in Express for Office product.


Add-in Express 2008 for Microsoft Office

Feature List

.NET Edition

VSTO Edition

VCL Edition

Environment

Platforms and run-time

Supported platform

.NET Framework

.NET Framework

Win32

.NET Framework versions

1.1, 2.0, 3.5

2.0, 3.5

Not required

Required run-time

ADX Loader,

VSTO Loader,

not required for non-isolated solutions

VSTO Loader

Not required

Supported IDEs and programming languages

IDE

Visual Studio 2003

Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio 2008

+ beta support for
Visual Studio 2010

Visual Studio 2005

Visual Studio 2008

Delphi 5 - 2010

IDE Editions

Visual Studio Express, Standard, Professional, Team System,

Delphi Prism 2009

Visual Studio Professional, Team System,

Delphi Prism 2009

Delphi:
Professional, Enterprise, Architect

Programming languages

VB.NET 2003 - 2008

C# 2003 -2008

C++.NET 2003 - 2008

Delphi Prism 2009

VB.NET 2005, 2008

C# 2005, 2008

Delphi Prism 2009

Object Pascal

Supported Office applications and customization projects

Supported Office customization projects

Office COM Add-ins

+

+

+

Office Smart Tags

+


+

Excel Automation Add-ins

+


+

Excel Real-Time Data Servers

+


+

Excel XLLs

+



Supported Office application versions

Outlook

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

2003, 2007

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

Word

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

2003, 2007

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

Excel

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

2003, 2007

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

PowerPoint

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

2003, 2007

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

Project

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

2003, 2007

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

Visio

2002, 2003,

2007

2003, 2007

2002, 2003,

2007

InfoPath

2007

2007

2007

Access

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007


2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

FrontPage

2000, 2002,

2003, 2007


2000, 2002,

2003, 2007

Publisher

2002, 2003,

2007


2002, 2003,

2007

MapPoint

2004, 2009


2004, 2009

Deep integration with other Add-in Express products

Add-in Express for Outlook Express and .net

+



Add-in Express for Internet Explorer and .net

+


 

Office COM Add-ins

Programming Model

Version-neutral run-time

+

 

+

Programming model

Add-in Express

VSTO + Add-in Express

Add-in Express

COM add-in specific visual designer

+

+

+

Multi-hosted (shared) add-ins

+


+

Multiple add-ins in one assembly

+



Common Office customization

Visual designer for Office toolbars and menus

+

+

+

Visual designer for the Ribbon UI

+

+

+

Visual designer for the Office 2007 task panes

+

+

+

Version-neutral advanced task panes for Excel

+

+

+

Version-neutral advanced task panes for Word

+

+

+

Version-neutral advanced task panes for PowerPoint

+

+

+

Application-level keyboard shortcuts

+

+

+

Special components for intercepting of any built-in toolbar controls and menu items

+

+

+

Using any controls (standard and any 3rd-party) on Office toolbars

+

+


Outlook customization

Synchronous event helpers for Outlook object events: folders, items, item, etc.

+

+

+

Special components and visual designer for Outlook Explorer toolbars and menus

+

+

+

Special components and visual designer for Outlook Inspector toolbars, menus and ribbons

+

+

+

Context sensitivity: binding toolbars, menus, ribbons and certain controls to folders, folder content types, form classes, etc.

+

+

+

Special components and visual designer for Outlook option pages and folder properties pages

+

+

+

Special components and visual designer for the Outlook Navigation Pane shortcuts

+

+

+

Advanced view and form regions for Outlook

+

+

+

Context sensitivity for advanced view and form regions: binding regions to folders, content types, form classes, etc.

+

+

+

Excel Plug-ins

Real-time Data Servers

Version-neutral run-time

+


+

Special components and visual designer for Excel Real-time Data Servers

+


+

Automation Add-ins (worksheet user-defined functions)

Version-neutral run-time

+


+

XLLs (worksheet user-defined functions)

Special components and visual designer for Excel XLLs

+



Office Smart Tags

Programming Model

Version-neutral run-time

+


+

Smart Tag-specific visual designer

+


+

Smart Tag Customization

Run-time customization and visual designer for Microsoft Office Smart Tags

+


+

Smart tag libraries: multiple static and dynamic smart tag recognizers in one project

+


+

Security and Deployment

Security

Enforcing Office and Windows strict security

+

+

+

Support of Microsoft Office 2007 Trust Center

+

+

+

Application domain isolation

+

+


Deployment

Multiple projects in one solution

+


+

Deployment technology

Visual Studio integrated setup projects

Visual Studio integrated setup projects

InnoSetup autogenerated
scripts

Complete support of the ClickOnce technology

+

+


More details

More details



Add-in Express for Microsoft Office and .net

Add-in Express for Microsoft Office and VSTO

Add-in Express for Microsoft Office and CodeGear VCL

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