Customizing the Excel User Interface: What is and isn’t customizable

Anytime Excel runs into a business process, users discover they require more of Excel. They can have more too by extending Excel via its API. Today, I'll cover what you user interface customizations are available to you when developing Excel add-ins with Add-in Express... Read the rest of this entry →

Excel add-in development in Visual Studio: Application and base objects

Today we start a new series to explain the basics (and more) of Excel add-in development. This is going to be serious fun because Excel rocks. Next to Outlook it might be the most popular target of Office add-ins... Read the rest of this entry →

Add-in Express for Office and Delphi VCL will support Delphi XE5 soon

You have probably read my announcement a few days ago that Add-in Express sim-ships with Visual Studio 2013. If you are a Delphi developer like me, I am happy to report good news to you too. The coming version of Add-in Express for Office and Delphi VCL will support Delphi XE5... Read the rest of this entry →

Create ASP.Net MVC websites: CSS UI Kits, frameworks, bootstraps and boilerplates

In this article, which will be the first in a series of articles, we'll dive into the various types of UI frameworks and begin to look at how you can start using the Foundation framework... Read the rest of this entry →

Add-in Express sim-ships with Visual Studio 2013

Good news for .NET developers! Add-in Express will ship simultaneously with the upcoming release of Visual Studio 2013... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Microsoft Word templates: C# sample

This is a continuation of the work we did in my previous article. The difference is, we will use a pre-built template for inserting data. Instead of inserting data "willy-nilly", we need to find where to insert it within the document's pre-defined structure... Read the rest of this entry →

Populating Word documents with data from external sources (database, SharePoint, Outlook, etc.)

Today, I have three main C# code samples that insert data into Word. Each sample method creates and then goes to town inserting data. It is a simple strategy and works very well to get you started integrating data into Word... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Word document properties, bookmarks, content controls and quick parts

Even though the object model can be somewhat daunting it gives you amazing flexibility and power over programmatically bending MS Word to your will. In today's article we'll have a look at the Microsoft Word document properties, content controls, quick parts and bookmarks, and how you can access and use these objects in your own add-ins... Read the rest of this entry →

Using custom XML parts in Word add-ins

Custom XML parts are chunks of XML that reside within a Word document. They are not part of the document, per se, because they are not visible to the user. Starting with Office 2007, the Office file formats are XML-based and are comprised of XML parts... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with multiple Microsoft Word documents: C# add-in example

In today's article we'll take a look at how you can combine information and text from various existing Microsoft Word documents into a single document. We'll create a Word add-in that will allow the user to select and insert different paragraphs from one or more existing Word documents, into another document... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Word document designs, styles and printing

Designing Microsoft Word documents is not all that different from designing a web page; you want to keep the content and the design separate. In Word, you keep them separate by utilizing styles. Styles include a plethora of design elements (e.g. font, borders, paragraph format, etc). Let's have some fun with them via code... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with Word document content objects

Microsoft Word is about the authoring of documents. Documents contain pages, paragraphs, sentences and more. Today, I want to wade into the waters of manipulating Word document content. The plan is to get your feet wet by providing an overview of the key objects along with code samples... Read the rest of this entry →

Building custom task panes for Word 2013 – 2003

When building a Word add-in using Add-in Express, you have a choice of either creating a standard Office task pane or using the Add-in Express advanced Office task panes. In this article, we'll take a look at both approaches.... Read the rest of this entry →

Customizing Microsoft Word ribbons and toolbars: VB.NET, C#

A popular user interface customization is custom ribbons and custom toolbars. I think you know what these are and we'll cover how to create both of them for Microsoft Word. We'll start with Ribbon and work our way back to the legacy toolbars (aka CommandBars). ... Read the rest of this entry →

Customizing Word main menu, context menus and Backstage view: C# sample

Microsoft Word, like all the Office applications, introduced the Ribbon UI in Office 2007. However, Office 2003 still has a pretty big install base. This means that you will need to cater for the different user interface components that accompany Word 2003 and older.... Read the rest of this entry →

Customizing Word User Interface: What is and isn’t customizable

But for the advanced user who views Word as essential to their daily grind at the office… Word needs to do some adjusting to the user. This user has well defined grooves in their workday. They work spans across multiple teams, departments, companies, and applications. Microsoft Word can be a player in these processes and you can put Word in the best position possible. But how?... Read the rest of this entry →

Have any questions? Ask us right now!