Developing Office Solutions
After you design a project by using the Office developer tools in Visual Studio and set up the project files, you can begin to concentrate on implementing the code and custom user interface (UI).
Applies to: The information in this topic applies to document-level projects and application-level projects for Microsoft Office 2013 and Microsoft Office 2010. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.
Office Solutions Programming Model
The Office object model exposes a variety of objects that you can program against. Whenever you program Office solutions by using managed code, you write code that uses types in the Office primary interop assemblies. In solutions you create by using the Office project templates in Visual Studio, you also write code directly against generated classes in your project. For more information, see Writing Code in Office Solutions.
Programming Different Types of Office Solutions
The type of solution that you are creating determines which features you can use in your project. For example, you can add Windows Forms controls and extended Office controls (named host controls) to document-level customizations by dragging items from the Toolbox in Visual Studio at design time. However, if you are developing an application-level add-in, you can only add these sorts of controls to documents at run time, by writing code.
For more information about features that are specific to different types of solutions, see the following topics:
For background information to help you plan your Office solutions and procedures to help you create projects, see Designing and Creating Office Solutions.
Related Topics
Title |
Description |
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Describes different aspects of writing code in Office solutions. |
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Provides an overview of the programming model of application-level add-ins and related programming tasks. |
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Provides an overview of the programming model of document-level customizations and related programming tasks. |
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Describes the different ways that you can customize the UI of Office applications by using application-level add-ins and document-level customizations. |
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Describes the different ways that you can work with data in Office solutions, such as binding data to controls and caching data in document-level customizations. |
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Provides tips for solving common problems that you might encounter when creating Office solutions. |
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Provides an overview of working with multiple threads in Office solutions. |
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Describes the accessibility features that are available in Office solutions. |
See Also
Tasks
How to: Create and Modify Custom Document Properties
How to: Read from and Write to Document Properties
How to: Target the Office Multilingual User Interface
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Excel
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Document-Level Customization for Excel
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Outlook
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for PowerPoint
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Project
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Word
Walkthrough: Creating Your First Document-Level Customization For Word