I have created a MS Word add-in using C#/VSTO. When building with Visual Studio I set the version number for each published build. Is there a way for the users to find the build version of the add-in from Word (Office 365) so that they can determine if they are running the newest version? I can see that the add-in is installed under Options->Add-ins, but it doesn't list the version. Worst case I can add something to the Ribbon to display it but I'm hoping there is an easier way. Thanks!
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I am trying to create an Office add-in, mainly for Word, that consists of a simple Task Pane that displays search results from a website. I need it to work in every version of office, as far back as Office 2010. So I have chosen to create it in VSTO, as that seemed to be the most backward compatible approach. My problem is I don't have Word 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, etc, to test that the add-in works in them, nor do I have any idea of how to build the add-in for backward compatibility in the first place.
I've searched through countless tutorials, Microsoft docs, Stack Overflow answers. I'm stuck. I know it's technically possible because the Grammarly add-in works in Office 2007 thru 2021/365.
Is it even possible for a little dev like me to create an add-in for Word 2010 in 2022?
I am using Visual Studio 2021.
As far as I know Grammarly uses a shimmed COM add-in skeleton (most probably written in C++) which implements the IDTExtensibility2 interface. But VSTO does this for you out of the box by hiding all the complexity COM add-ins could have on board.
Is it even possible for a little dev like me to create an add-in for Word 2010 in 2022?
Yes, of course. It is not necessarily to create C++ COM add-ins, you can easily start creating VSTO add-ins for that. You just need to choose the right .net framework version for that.
The Run solutions in different versions of Microsoft Office article shows Office versions that can be supported by your add-in created with Visual Studio 2022 or earlier and target .net frameworks that can be used for that. Depending on the .net framework chosen you can support different ranges of Office application versions, in short.
The Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime page lists the VSTO Runtime releases and the corresponding version of Office for which its support lifecycle follows. The Visual Studio 2010 Tools for Office Runtime (VSTO Runtime) ships with various versions of Visual Studio and Microsoft Office and follows the support lifecycle of the parent product. It is recommended that developers install the latest version of the VSTO Runtime with their applications. It will be supported when running with supported versions Office. If the VSTO Runtime needs to be serviced, only the latest version will be updated.
I have problems with my Word Add-in. It doen't work.
After some investigation I figured out that this issue apears after Office update.
I mean in elder versions of MS Word was used Internet Explorer. But after update the engine is Microsoft Edge Legacy. Also I now that now exists new Microsoft Edge based on Chromium.
So the question is next, is there a way to make my MS Word use Microsoft Edge based on Chromium instead of Microsoft Edge Legacy?
In addition:
in my research I depends on data from this link:
https://learn.microsoft.com/ru-ru/office/dev/add-ins/concepts/browsers-used-by-office-web-add-ins
Also tried to install WebView2 but it doen't help.
Current Version of MD Office: 13628.20274
Current Version of Word: 16.0.13628.20234
Will be grateful for any information related to my issue.
Thank in advance and have a nice day))
Check your Office installation. Build 13628.20274 is a release in the Current/Monthly Channel but is from January 2021. With this build the WebView2 control should be included and installed automatically. But, as you are several months behind the usual update schedule, your administrator might have put some restriction in place that prevent normal update installation.
As you installed the WebView2 control manually, you should double check that it is enabled in Office. The registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Office\16.0\WEF\Win32WebView2 must exist and must have a value of 1 (DWORD).
I have created an office addin for Word 2010 targeting .net 4 and this should apparently work in office 2007.
I have created the installer per this article with the exception that I include a dll in the dependencies rather than in the bootstrapper for the prerequisites.
The installer installs the vsto and the registry keys in
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\Excel\Addins\ProjectName
The pc also has .Net 4 and the Office 2007 Primary interop assemblies.
The addin doesn't appear in Word 2007, any ideas where I could be going wrong?
UPDATE:
You have to sign your addin, this was pretty obvious! Office now recognises the addin but its gets a runtime error that I can't debug. Tried to debug with these steps with no luck!
Had to build for correct CPU version of office, in my case 32bit, Any CPU didn't work!
Hello I have been fighting some complexities with understanding deployment of Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) for MS Office. I have Visual Studio Com Add-IN built in VS 2008 on pure com technology (not VSTO see bottom of this for more on that), which references 2003 Primary Interop Assemblies but the add-in may be used on 2003, 2007 or now 2010 Office machines. Because I never know if the customer will be using 2003, 2007, or 2010, I cannot simply deploy one PIA version as a prerequisite (unless I make 3 installers which I do not want to do). Now, my understanding is that when you follow the steps here to add 2003 and 2007 PIA to the prerequisite lists that show up in a Visual Studio (2008) setup package, the prerequisites are smart enough to determine which office version is running on the client you are targeting. So if you were to select 2003 primary interop assemblies and 2007 primary iterop assemblies as both being prerequisites then when this installs on a machine that has 2003 it should be intelligent enough to only try to add the 2003 PIA if those are missing on this machine and if this is a 2007 Office machine then it will only install 2007 PIA (and not try to install 2003 PIA).
Question 1 is this a correct understanding (that the prerequisite packages are this intelligent to only install what it needs based on the version of Office?)
Question 2 is there a way to get the 2010 PIA to show in the list of prerequisites in VS 2008 like 2003 and 2007 do? I do not want to upgrade this project to VS 2010 b/c it is considered a legacy app now with many customers from all around the world using it.
Question 3 Even though the actual assembly references 2003 primary interops, I do not presently deploy those interops with the add-in to the install location. Instead, I am assuming that if I can get the correct PIA installed then I don't need this present in the installation path, since the PIA would be in the GAC. However, one possible approach may be to just include the 2003 assemblies that are referenced (in my case excel and word) in the install path and not worry about the PIA. I suspect this would work on 2003 machines but perhaps not on 2007 and 2010 machines b/c on the latter, even if the 2003 interops that are referenced are found at run time in the install path of the assembly, I think if there is not a Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel/Word(etc) in the GAC, then 2007 and 2010 will likely not know what to do with the 11.0 (2003) interops (as I think the Policy.11.0.Microsoft.Office.Interop files redirect requests for the 2003 interops to 2007 or 2010). Any thoughts on this?
Question 4: There is a well known bug with Framework 2.0 apps Office Add-Ins and Office 2003 where the add-in won't load. This was addressed by KB907417 aka KB908002. Dopes anyone know if this KB necessary if you develop on the 3.0 or 3.5 framework (and make 3.0 or 3.5 a prerequisite) since this problem was specific to framework 2.0? Or does the KB still need to be deployed b/c it's office 2003 that is the problem and not the version of the framework?
As you can tell by my 3 questions what I am trying to ascertain is whether we can build one single installer via the VS setup utility. If the PIAs can be done with one installer but the KB above is the obstacle (as perhaps the answer will come back that even on the 3.0 or 3.5 framework 2003 customers will need the KB) then maybe the path to one installer is to just make the KB a prerequisite across the board and install it on 2007 or 2010 machines, though they technically do not need them. Any thoughts on that option would be appreciated as well. Finally, I am aware that writing a manged Com Add-IN for excel or word is now generally done with VSTO instead of pure managed framework code, but this is not an option presently to change the legacy app to this direction. Also it is reported that the 4.0 framework now can be used to deploy add-ins without making any PIA a prerequisite but again, this is not a viable option right now.
Does the code use any Office 2007+ methods or classes? If not, are you sure you cannot use the 2003 PIAs in all cases? The later apps should be backward-compatible (supporting the same API) so the only reason you'd need an updated PIA is if you needed to access some feature added by 2007 or later, I think.
You may want to take a look at Add-in Express, which promises a one-for-all-versions installer, and is pretty easy to use.
As you can tell by my 3 questions what I am trying to ascertain is whether we can build one single installer via the VS setup utility
You cannot. You must create custom installer packager (setup bootstrapper).
Many years ago I used dotNetInstaller with HTML GUI builder, today WiX toolset would be better solution, I think.
Check how PIA .msi installers are constructed with Orca or .msi and .exe installers flow checking windows installer logs.
Based on registry checks, file checks, installed product checks, windows versions, office versions you can create conditions whether component should be installed or not.
Oh and I advise making plugin installers without prerequisites and installing them conditionally with your custom installer bootstrapper.
I have a requirement to create an installer for an Outlook 2003 add-in that was created with VSTO.
We currently are using Wix for our installers as they play nice with MSBuild and I need to use it to create the installer for the outlook add-in.
I have no experience with outlook add-ins and am unsure exactly what is involved and how to go about creating the installer.
Can anyone share any experience/tips/examples that would help me please?
Thanks in advance,
B
I found this Microsoft article on VSTO add-ins deployment to be an absolute life-saver; I don't know about Wix, though. http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb332052.aspx
I've not done this in WiX but I have done it in InstallShield. Below with my notes from that time:
http://blog.deploymentengineering.com/search?q=vsto
One problem you will have is that WiX doesn't have a bootstrapper so you will have to find a way to chain the .NET Framework and VSTO redist ( also possibly the Office 2003 PIAs; you didn't say which version of VSTO you are using ) with your installer unless you choose to take the route that merely gates the install if those aren't found.
I recall using a DTF custom action to publish a certificate but I can't recall if that was needed for Office 2003 or only for Office 2007.