Building COM Add-ins for Office Applications

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Because Microsoft® Office XP applications support the Component Object Model (COM) add-in architecture, you can use the same tools and installation file formats (a Microsoft® ActiveX® .dll or .exe) to develop add-ins for all Office applications. By building COM add-ins, you can extend the functionality of your Office-based applications without adding complexity for the user.

You can also create add-ins for Office Developer and for the Microsoft® Visual Basic® Editor. You can make such add-ins available to or from any application that supports Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), including applications other than Office.

In This Section

• Working with Add-in Designers
  Create and register your COM add-in with an add-in designer.
• Specifying Load Behavior
  Load (connect) the add-in, and make it available to the user; or unload (disconnect) the add-in, so it cannot be run.
• Writing Code in the Add-in Designer
  Begin writing code in the designer's class module when you have specified general information for a COM add-in in the add-in designer.
• Hooking a COM Add-in Up to a Command Bar Control
  Integrate your COM add-in (if it has a user interface) with the host application in some way, so the user can interact with it.
• Debugging a COM Add-in
  Load and use the COM add-in from within a Microsoft® Office XP application to test and debug it.
• Making the DLL
  Turn your COM add-in into a DLL when you have finished debugging it.
• Distributing COM Add-ins
  Install all the files necessary to distributing your COM add-in to other users on each user's system and register the add-in.
• COM Add-ins and Security
  Specify security settings for Microsoft® Office XP applications in the Office XP Security dialog box.

Related Sections

• Add-ins, Templates, Wizards, and Libraries
  Extend an application by adding functionality that is not in the core product itself by creating add-ins.
• What Is a COM Add-in?
  Extend the functionality of your Microsoft® Office-based applications without adding complexity for the user.
• Building COM Add-ins for the Visual Basic Editor
  Customize your development environment and work with components in a Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) project from code.
• Building Application-Specific Add-ins
  Add functionality to Microsoft® Office XP applications by creating application-specific add-ins.
• Creating Templates
  Learn how to give users a framework within which to complete common tasks by using templates.
• Creating Wizards
  Understand how to create a wizard to walk users through a series of steps to create a new document, spreadsheet, presentation, database, or Web application and to deliver an application is that is easy to use.
• Building Reusable Code Libraries
  Increase your efficiency by storing code for functionality you often implement in your procedures.