[...]... will need to install Visual Studio 2005 and Microsoft Office Professional Edition with Service Pack 1 The Professional Edition is an absolute requirement because VSTO cannot run without it However, Visual Studio 2005 is not an absolute requirement If you have purchased the stand-alone version of Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005, you do not need Visual Studio 2005 to compile and run VSTO- based applications... you should install it Visual Studio Tools for Office Figure 1-3 Creating VSTO Projects Once Visual Studio Tools for Office is installed correctly, you may create a new project based on VSTO Follow these few steps to install the necessary PIA’s on your system 1 2 Open Visual Studio 2005 3 In the project types window pane, choose Office from the language tree Notice that Visual Studio has tailored your... VSTO version that encompasses all the power and productivity of Visual Studio 4 Visual Studio Tools for Office VSTO is implemented as an add-in to Visual Studio The VSTO engine runs in-process in the Visual Studio address space The VSTO engine depends on Office PIA’s in order to communicate with Microsoft Office objects About Microsoft Office PIAs Primary Interop Assemblies (PIA) are NET wrappers built... Microsoft Office 2003 Professional Edition is an absolute requirement; VSTO 2005 cannot work with any other Office edition Follow this install with any updates or service packs that are available You may download and install the latest updates and service packs for Microsoft Office 2003 by visiting the Microsoft Office website Then, install Visual Studio. NET 2005 followed by Visual Studio Tools for Office. .. particular forum emailed to you, click the Subscribe to this Forum icon by the forum name in the forum listing For more information about how to use the Wrox P2P, be sure to read the P2P FAQs for answers to questions about how the forum software works as well as many common questions specific to P2P and Wrox books To read the FAQs, click the FAQ link on any P2P page xx Visual Studio Tools for Office Visual Studio. .. Chapter 1: Visual Studio Tools for Office ix xvii 1 What’s New in VSTO? VSTO Architecture 1 2 User Interface Client Interface Server Component 3 3 3 The VSTO Package About Microsoft Office PIAs System Requirements Alternatives to the VSTO Office Systems VBA Office Web Components Excel COM Interop Libraries Third Party Products Disadvantages of VSTO 4 5 6 7 7 8 8 9 9 NET Framework Required Security Performance... numerous today, VSTO only supports C# and Visual Basic — formerly known as Visual Basic.NET You may use either language to build applications based on Microsoft Office technology Visual Studio Tools for Office does not currently support assemblies built from a combination of Visual Basic and C# To be fair, this limitation is actually imposed by the Common Language Runtime However, for those not familiar... interface For instance, it is quite feasible for a VSTO based application to consume components developed by third party vendors However, VSTO automation is particularly well-suited to objects that belong under 10 Visual Studio Tools for Office the umbrella term of Office products Usually, these objects contain internal optimizations that make them particularly well-disposed to VSTO automation Unfortunately,... Microsoft Office technology At its core, Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO, pronounced “visto”) is simply a platform that allows Microsoft Office documents to execute code wrapped in a NET assembly It is certainly not the only technology available for developing applications based on Microsoft Office In fact, web developers have been using classic ASP and regular COM Interop to build Office based... training is required for those already familiar with Microsoft Office functionality Client Interface The client component is made up of a combination of the NET assembly developed for the new VSTObased application and the VSTO. NET engine provided by Visual Studio Tools for Office System The engine floats on top of the Common Language Runtime infrastructure and allows the Microsoft Office document to . ii Professional VSTO 2005 Visual Studio ® 2005 Tools for Office Alvin Bruney 01_788139 ffirs.qxp 3/29/06 3:00 PM Page iii Professional VSTO 2005: Visual Studio 2005 Tools. ii Professional VSTO 2005 Visual Studio ® 2005 Tools for Office 01_788139 ffirs.qxp 3/29/06 3:00 PM Page i 01_788139 ffirs.qxp 3/29/06 3:00 PM Page ii Professional VSTO