How can I add a managed control onto the document surface in an Add-in?

Question

How can I add a managed control onto the document surface in an Add-in?

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 1

Before Visual Studio 2008 SP1, we can only add a managed control onto the Office document in a document level project. With the Visual Studio 2008 SP1, we can achieve the same objective for the application level project now.

The core is that VSTO has exported a method named GetVstoObject() from the class DocumentExtensions in the Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Extensions namespace. This is an extension method that can be called from a native Word document. The method GetVstoObject() will return a VSTO wrapped document. We can then call Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Document.Controls.Add() to place a managed control onto the document surface.

The following sample codes add a button onto a Word document in the Add-in startup:

 

        private Button btn = null; 

        private Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Document doc = null;

        private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

        {

            doc = this.Application.ActiveDocument.GetVstoObject();

            btn = doc.Controls.AddButton(0, 0, 50, 20, "MyButton");

            btn.Click += new EventHandler(btn_Click);

            btn.Text = "My Button";

        }

 

        void btn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)

        {

            MessageBox.Show("This is a managed button in Word Add-in project");

        }

(Related forum thread, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/37c49ef4-8ca7-4874-b82c-f8f170daf08a/ )

For more FAQ about Visual Studio Tools for Office, please see Visual Studio Tools for Office FAQ

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 2

Add VB version codes,

    Private btn As Button
    Private doc As Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.Document

    Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        doc = Me.Application.ActiveDocument.GetVstoObject()
        btn = doc.Controls.AddButton(0, 0, 50, 20, "MyButton")
        AddHandler btn.Click, AddressOf btn_Click
        btn.Text = "My Button"
    End Sub

    Sub btn_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As EventArgs)
        MessageBox.Show("This is a managed button in Word Add-in project")
    End Sub

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We have published a VSTO FAQ recently, you can view them from the entry thread http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en/vsto/thread/31b1ffbf-117b-4e8f-ad38-71614437df59. If you have any feedbacks or suggestions on this FAQ, please feel free to write us emails to [e-mail].