Posts Tagged ‘Visual Studio’
Using custom XML parts in Word add-ins
Ty Anderson | August 23rd, 2013
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
Pieter van der Westhuizen | August 19th, 2013
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
Ty Anderson | August 15th, 2013
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 →
Customizing Microsoft Word ribbons and toolbars: VB.NET, C#
Ty Anderson | July 26th, 2013
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 User Interface: What is and isn’t customizable
Ty Anderson | July 17th, 2013
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 →
Automating Word Mail Merge in Visual Studio – C# sample
Pieter van der Westhuizen | July 5th, 2013
The Mail Merge functionality in Microsoft Word is one of the most powerful features that enables you to create, amongst other things, simple form letters. It is, however, one of the tricky things to get your head around when trying to automate it in either an Office add-in or a stand-alone application using the Word Object model... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook tasks: how to create, get and delete Task and To-Do items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | June 12th, 2013
Outlook tasks are a great way to keep track of things you need to do. I use it every single day! A task item is a standard Outlook type and by default all tasks are flagged for follow-up when created. When any items such as an e-mail, task or contact are flagged for follow-up it automatically becomes a to-do item and is visible in your To-do bar... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook calendar (appointment and meeting items)
Ty Anderson | June 10th, 2013
Yeah sure, email is front and center with Outlook. But right behind it and ready to steal the show is the Outlook calendar. If you aren't looking at email, I bet you are looking at your calendar to see if you can meet at such-and-such time on such-and-such date... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook mail items: how to create, delete, access & enumerate
Ty Anderson | June 3rd, 2013
Mail items are the featured player of Outlook… email! Sure, contacts and appointments are regulars but email receives the most attention. We are addicted to the stuff. And as an Outlook plug-in developer, you need to know the basics.... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook Accounts, Stores, Folders and Items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | May 31st, 2013
Any user of Microsoft Outlook will tell you that you cannot use Outlook without first setting up an account. This account can either be an Exchange server, POP or IMAP account, although Outlook can support any MAPI style account too.... Read the rest of this entry →
Advanced Outlook form regions for Outlook 2013 – 2000
Ty Anderson | May 30th, 2013
As great as Outlook is, it was not designed to meet 100% of any one user's needs. Therefore, users constantly think of ideas for how we developers can "trick it out". And what do they want? They want custom Outlook forms!... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook 2013 view regions: Explorer pane, Navigation Pane, ToDo bar, Preview pane
Ty Anderson | May 24th, 2013
When building an Outlook add-in you will definitely confront scenarios that require custom forms. In these scenarios, you must answer two questions. What does the form need to do? Where does the form need to display?
... Read the rest of this entry →
Video: Develop Office 2013 add-ins with Visual Studio 2012 Express
Ty Anderson | April 30th, 2013
In this video, I show how to create an add-in for Microsoft Office 2013 Outlook, Excel and Word and add a custom ribbon using Add-in Express for Office and .net with Visual Studio Express 2012. Enjoy!... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook forms: How to create a custom Outlook form using VBA
Ty Anderson | April 24th, 2013
Because it is composed of different windows, panes, and form regions, the Outlook UI presents a complex UI model to the developer. Despite these options, a common customization request is for custom forms to display the various Outlook items. Today, we'll take a look at Outlook forms and how you can customize them... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook views: How to create a custom view for calendar, task, mail items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | April 18th, 2013
Outlook views allow you to group, sort and view all the different types of Outlook data within the View panel of the Outlook Explorer window. Outlook comes with a few built-in views for each Outlook item type (mail, task, calendar, etc.) which can be accessed via the View tab... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook 2013 add-in development for beginners: Outlook Application & base objects
Ty Anderson | April 17th, 2013
Working with a new framework takes time as you familiarize yourself with its architecture and best practices. You have to spend time discovering objects, learning what they do, and when it is best to utilize them. For Outlook add-in development (and Microsoft Office development in general), this task can take months due to the number of objects involved... Read the rest of this entry →