Word 2007 Task Pane Keep Open

Add-in Express™ Support Service
That's what is more important than anything else

Word 2007 Task Pane Keep Open
 
Martin Kirsten




Posts: 71
 Joined: 2008-04-23
Hi

I have created an add-in for Word, Excel and PowerPoint 2007 that has a Task Pane (AddinExpress.MSO.ADXTaskPane). I would like to keep the task pane open in Word 2007 even when all documents have been closed (and only the Word shell is still open) - Excel and PowerPoint 2007 do this by default.

Any advice greatly appreciated.
Posted 01 Aug, 2008 09:43:27 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Martin,

Word allows you to add document-oriented task panes. That is why task panes cannot be shown without an opened document.
Posted 01 Aug, 2008 10:36:58 Top
Martin Kirsten




Posts: 71
 Joined: 2008-04-23
Hi Eugene

On the contrary, when I open any of the native Word 2007 Task Panes (e.g. clipboard), and then close all documents, the pane remains open. This shows that a pane can be open with closed documents.

I would like to have this functionality for my pane as well, please advise how I can do so.
Posted 01 Aug, 2008 11:58:03 Top
Eugene Astafiev


Guest


Hi Martin,

Unfortunately, there is no such possibility. Word allows you to add custom task panes, but the Clipboard task pane is not a custom task pane.
Posted 04 Aug, 2008 08:47:17 Top
Martin Kirsten




Posts: 71
 Joined: 2008-04-23
Hi Eugene

Does Add-in Express not allow the creation of such a task pane, or does Word 2007 not allow it? I don't understand why there are native task panes that remain open in Word 2007 (the Document Management/Document Workspace is another example of such a pane), but that I cannot create a pane that does.

What kind of task panes are these if they are not custom task panes?
Posted 04 Aug, 2008 09:25:07 Top
Andrei Smolin


Add-in Express team


Posts: 18830
 Joined: 2006-05-11
Hi Martin,

There is a definite difference between custom task panes and built-in task panes. Built-in ones are created by Microsoft. And custom task panes are a set of COM interfaces which allow developers to create custom panes. Microsoft set the rules for custom task panes so that the panes are associated with a parent window. For a custom task pane in Word, the parent window is the document window. For a custom task pane in Excel, the parent window is the Excel application window. This fact also underlines the difference between window structures of Word and Excel.

There are other examples when Office interfaces provided for developers differ from those used in Office. Say, button New in Outlook. This sort of command bar controls is unavaiable for developers. Another area is the Ribbon UI. In Add-in Express products, we try our best to widen possibilities for developers but Offfice 2007 custom task panes behave by rules determined by Microsoft. Unfortunately, we can do close to nothing in this area.


Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
Posted 04 Aug, 2008 09:47:31 Top
Martin Kirsten




Posts: 71
 Joined: 2008-04-23
Hi Andrei

Thanks for the information.

Regards

Martin
Posted 04 Aug, 2008 11:11:24 Top