Using the VB.NET sample files

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Using the VB.NET sample files
 
Tom Mulholland




Posts: 15
 Joined: 2012-06-26
Hello Andrei

I've been downloading a few of the sample VB.NET files around advanced excel task panes. I have a number of task panes designed in the task pane manager, and I've suppressed all of them using the BeforeTaskPaneShow event so they are all hidden when Excel fires up.

Tonight I was just after something that explains how to make the task pane visible programmatically so I can say something like PaneXXX.visible = TRUE then PaneXXX.show. I can't believe I am actually asking this. I have gone through most of the samples but it's quite C orientated and so I have to resort to the VB.net samples on offer.

Each time I download one sample zip, I save to disk, extract to a folder, then in VS I start a new project and point it to the .vbbproj file in the extracted zip folder. When I try to access the AddinModule designer, I get the horrific error screen with "missing components -- this may make the designer unstable ... controls may be lost ... ignore or continue".

So I can press F5 and get into Excel host, but from there I can't see how to access the functionality in the sample. Do you have an idiot's guide how to use the samples, as I am quite happy to say I need one. I can't get any of the samples downloaded to work on my machine.

I have VS2019 community, latest ADX and Excel 2019.

Thanks in advance...
Posted 11 May, 2021 16:35:52 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18821
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hello Tom,

Tom Mulholland writes:
When I try to access the AddinModule designer, I get the horrific error screen with "missing components -- this may make the designer unstable ... controls may be lost ... ignore or continue".


Close the AddinModule designer, rebuild the project and reopen the designer anew. Does this help?

The business-logic code of C#-oriented examples can be translated to VB.NET using an online C# to VB.NET converter. The code converted in this way may require polishing. As far as I remember that was the case with connecting to (and disconnecting from) events.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 12 May, 2021 03:46:25 Top