Action Interface

Represents a smart tag action in an Excel workbook that is customized by using the Office development tools in Visual Studio.

Namespace:  Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel
Assembly:  Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel (in Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.dll)

Syntax

'Declaration
<GuidAttribute("37e25b46-6941-4833-9b08-e692cf461982")> _
Public Interface Action _
    Inherits ActionBase

[GuidAttribute("37e25b46-6941-4833-9b08-e692cf461982")]
public interface Action : ActionBase

The Action type exposes the following members.

Properties

	Name	Description
	Caption	Gets or sets the name of the action, as displayed in the smart tag menu. (Inherited from ActionBase.)

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Events

	Name	Description
	BeforeCaptionShow	Occurs after the user clicks the smart tags icon, and before the smart tag menu is displayed.
	Click	Occurs when the action in the smart tag menu is clicked.

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Remarks

Actions are the choices available on the smart tag shortcut menu when a smart tag of a certain type is recognized. To create an action, use the Globals.Factory.CreateAction method to create an Action object. For more information, see Smart Tags Architecture.

Usage

This type is intended to be used only in projects for Excel 2007. Smart tags are deprecated in Excel 2010. For more information, see Smart Tags Overview.

This documentation describes the version of this type that is used in Office projects that target the .NET Framework 4. In projects that target the .NET Framework 3.5, this type might have different members and the code examples provided for this type might not work. For documentation about this type in projects that target the .NET Framework 3.5, see the following reference section in the Visual Studio 2008 documentation: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=160658.

Examples

The following code example creates a SmartTag with an Action that recognizes the term "sale" and the regular expression "[I|i]ssue\s\d{5,6}". The action modifies the menu caption of the action at run time and displays the address of the text that was recognized. To test the example, type the word "sale" in one cell and the string "issue 12345" in another cell, and then try the smart tag action.

WithEvents displayAddress As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action

Private Sub AddSmartTag()

    ' Create the smart tag for .NET Framework 4 projects.
    Dim smartTagDemo As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.SmartTag = _
        Globals.Factory.CreateSmartTag(
        "www.microsoft.com/Demo#DemoSmartTag",
        "Demonstration Smart Tag")

    ' For .NET Framework 3.5 projects, use the following code to create the smart tag.
    ' Dim smartTagDemo As New  _
    '    Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.SmartTag( _
    '    "www.microsoft.com/Demo#DemoSmartTag", _
    '    "Demonstration Smart Tag")

    ' Specify a term and an expression to recognize.
    smartTagDemo.Terms.Add("sale")
    smartTagDemo.Expressions.Add( _
        New System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex( _
        "[I|i]ssue\s\d{5,6}"))

    ' Create the action for .NET Framework 4 projects.
    displayAddress = Globals.Factory.CreateAction("To be replaced")

    ' For .NET Framework 3.5 projects, use the following code to create the action.
    ' displayAddress = New Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action("To be replaced")

    ' Add the action to the smart tag.
    smartTagDemo.Actions = New Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action() { _
            displayAddress}

    ' Add the smart tag.
    Me.VstoSmartTags.Add(smartTagDemo)
End Sub

Private Sub DisplayAddress_BeforeCaptionShow(ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.ActionEventArgs) _
    Handles DisplayAddress.BeforeCaptionShow

    Dim clickedAction As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action = _
        TryCast(sender, Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action)

    If clickedAction IsNot Nothing Then
        clickedAction.Caption = "Display the address of " & e.Text
    End If
End Sub

Private Sub DisplayAddress_Click(ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.ActionEventArgs) _
    Handles DisplayAddress.Click

    Dim smartTagAddress As String = e.Range.Address( _
        ReferenceStyle:=Excel.XlReferenceStyle.xlA1)
    MsgBox("The recognized text '" & e.Text & _
            "' is at range " & smartTagAddress)
End Sub

private Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action displayAddress;

private void AddSmartTag()
{
    // Create the smart tag for .NET Framework 4 projects.
    Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.SmartTag smartTagDemo =
        Globals.Factory.CreateSmartTag(
            "www.microsoft.com/Demo#DemoSmartTag",
            "Demonstration Smart Tag");

    // For .NET Framework 3.5 projects, use the following code to create the smart tag.
    // Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.SmartTag smartTagDemo =
        // new Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.SmartTag(
        //     "www.microsoft.com/Demo#DemoSmartTag",
        //     "Demonstration Smart Tag");

    // Specify a term and an expression to recognize.
    smartTagDemo.Terms.Add("sale");
    smartTagDemo.Expressions.Add(
        new System.Text.RegularExpressions.Regex(
        @"[I|i]ssue\s\d{5,6}"));

    // Create the action for .NET Framework 4 projects.
    displayAddress = Globals.Factory.CreateAction("To be replaced");

    // For .NET Framework 3.5 projects, use the following code to create the action.
    // displayAddress = new Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action("To be replaced");

    // Add the action to the smart tag.
    smartTagDemo.Actions = new Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action[] { 
        displayAddress };

    // Add the smart tag.
    this.VstoSmartTags.Add(smartTagDemo);

    displayAddress.BeforeCaptionShow += new 
        Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.BeforeCaptionShowEventHandler(
        DisplayAddress_BeforeCaptionShow);

    displayAddress.Click += new 
        Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.ActionClickEventHandler(
        DisplayAddress_Click);
}

void DisplayAddress_BeforeCaptionShow(object sender, 
    Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.ActionEventArgs e)
{
    Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action clickedAction =
        sender as Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.Action;

    if (clickedAction != null)
    {
        clickedAction.Caption = "Display the address of " +
            e.Text;
    }
}

void DisplayAddress_Click(object sender, 
    Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.ActionEventArgs e)
{
    string smartTagAddress = e.Range.get_Address(missing,
        missing, Excel.XlReferenceStyle.xlA1, missing, missing);
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("The recognized text '" + e.Text +
        "' is at range " + smartTagAddress);
}

See Also

Reference

Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel Namespace

SmartTag

Other Resources

Smart Tags Architecture

How to: Add Smart Tags to Excel Workbooks

How to: Create Smart Tags With Custom Recognizers in Excel and .NET Framework 3.5