Using 2007 Office System Tools for Visual Studio 2005

Just to make life more interesting, the official designation for these tools is Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office, Second Edition. (I guess that's to distinguish them from the toolset that's been available since day one, designed for MS Office 2003, and explains the source of the preceding MS abbreviation.)

More on VSTO and Office 2007 VSTO Learning Guide What Office 2007 means for deevlopers Chapter Download: Introduction to Office Solutions

Here's what you get with the latest edition of these tools, which anybody who owns a licensed version of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office or Visual Studio Professional may download for free:

• Add-in modules for all the major Office 2007 applications, including Excel, InfoPath, Outlook, PowerPoint, Visio and Word. These feature safe loading and unloading capabilities and are designed as managed add-ins. Likewise, you'll also find enhancements for add-in support for the same components in Office 2003 (except InfoPath).
• Design and runtime support for important new Office 2007 features, including the ribbon, custom task panes, and forms regions for Outlook 2007.
• Design support for InfoPath 2007 form templates, so that developers can build templates for later population and use at runtime.
• Forward compatibility, which boils down Microsoft's assurances that applications built using VSTO 2005 continue to work with Office 2007, and are compatible with VSTO 2005 SE.
• Works inside VS 2005 Professional, as well as other already-supported VS versions, including MSDN subscriptions and products in the Visual Studio 2005 Team System family.

For more information, visit the MS VSTO 2005 SE Web page, where you can view a demo video, find lots of news and articles, and also grab the download if you qualify to use it.

Ed Tittel is a writer and trainer whose interests include XML and development topics, along with IT Certification and information security. E-mail etittel@techtarget.com with comments, questions, or suggested topics or tools to review. Cool tools rule!

Rate this Tip To rate tips, you must be a member of SearchWinDevelopment.com. Register now to start rating these tips. Log in if you are already a member. Digg This!     StumbleUpon     Del.icio.us    RELATED CONTENT Microsoft Office Development Downloadable MSDN library released for VS 2008 SP 1 Check the MSDN Virtual Labs for regular, compelling new content Windows XP SP3 pack includes new XML parser, enhanced IP security Book excerpt: Building personalized solutions in SharePoint 2007 Book excerpt: Building document management solutions in SharePoint 2007 XAML as an everywhere presentation format Where are the Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office? ClickOnce: Automated smart client deployment Book excerpt: SharePoint 2007 and content types Update desktops automatically using the AppUpdater component .NET Developer How to speed up Visual Studio 2008's slow WPF designer How to list fonts in WPF using markup extensions and data templates How to convince management to buy Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 Microsoft webcast series previews new Visual Studio 2010 features New features in Windows 7 bring new UI considerations for developers User Account Control (UAC): How to develop code for standard users Introduction to Vista's user account control (UAC) for developers Visual Studio 2008 code metrics tools will help keep code clean Downloadable MSDN library released for VS 2008 SP 1 Widgetbox provides good example of how to use Facebook Developer Toolkit Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) Where are the Visual Studio 2008 Tools for Office? Using SharePoint, Office to develop portals and mashups Gates offers musings on Office, services at ODC Office System Developer Conference 2008 preview What Visual Studio 2008 brings to client application development On migrating from VBA to VSTO Component works with Word files inside .NET applications VSTA: How lightweight can you get? Ten cool Visual Studio Orcas features, part 1 Office plug-ins possible with Visual Studio add-in RELATED RESOURCES 2020software.com, trial software downloads for accounting software, ERP software, CRM software and business software systems Search Bitpipe.com for the latest white papers and business webcasts Whatis.com, the online computer dictionary DISCLAIMER: Our Tips Exchange is a forum for you to share technical advice and expertise with your peers and to learn from other enterprise IT professionals. TechTarget provides the infrastructure to facilitate this sharing of information. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy or validity of the material submitted. You agree that your use of the Ask The Expert services and your reliance on any questions, answers, information or other materials received through this Web site is at your own risk.