Creating Own Toolbars in Excel with VSTO

Question

 

Hi All,

 

I would like to add my own toolbars for all Ms-Excel that is installed in my machine. Whenever I open a new excel document, My tool bar should come with it.

 

some of the sites tell that we can use add-ins to create this.

 

 

but i can't use this add-in express due to its license.

 

so can anybody please tell me how to create my own tool bar in my excel application.

 

thanks in advance.

 

dhana.

Answer 1

Hi Dhana

 

Which version of Excel are you working with?

 

Which version of Visual Studio .NET would you be willing to buy (as VSTO cannot be used with the free Visual Studio Express)?

 

Please note that you can always create your own toolbars in Excel using Excel's built-in interface. This would mean VBA code, not .NET code. If all you want is toolbars in Excel for your own use, then this might be an acceptable option. If you're interested in that approach, you need to ask in the newsgroup interface.

 

Answer 2

 

i am using vs.net 2005 and ms-excel 2003.

 

i need to do my VSTO application related works on the excel .

 

for example,

 

My customer creates their own xls document with their sales information.

 

 

Those information need to update in our database. For this reason i will give a toolbar which will have a button to save the xls document data to our database.

 

that's why i am asking to create toolbars.

 

pls explain.

 

thanks in advance.

Answer 3

Dhanasekaran Guruswamy wrote:

i am using vs.net 2005 and ms-excel 2003. i need to do my VSTO application related works on the excel .   for example, My customer creates their own xls document with their sales information.   Those information need to update in our database. For this reason i will give a toolbar which will have a button to save the xls document data to our database.

 

OK, if you have Visual Studio 2005 PROFESSIONAL (or higher) you can download the VSTO 2005 SE tool. This will install Visual Studio templates for creating Office 2003 and Office 2007 Add-ins. See the "VSTO 2005 & 2003 Resource List " message for links to documentation, including how to create toolbars in your add-in. That should get you started...

Answer 4

 

hi cindy,

 

thanks for ur post. i had downloaded the VSTO 2005 SE setup file and installed in my application.

 

but i could not get the Excel Add-Ins project type.

 

Can you please tell me how to do it?

 

dhana

Answer 5

Dhanasekaran Guruswamy wrote:

i had downloaded the VSTO 2005 SE setup file and installed in my application.   but i could not get the Excel Add-Ins project type.

 

Which verson and edition of Visual Studio do you have?

 

Which programming language do you use?

Answer 6

 

i am using Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers.

 

i am developing with VB.Net.

Answer 7

Dhanasekaran Guruswamy wrote:

i am using Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Software Developers.   i am developing with VB.Net.

thank you for the additional information.

 

Go the File menu. Select New, then Project. Under Visual Basic do you see an entry for "Office"?

 

If not, something must have gone wrong with the installation of VSTO 2005 SE. You do have Office 2003 (and no other version in parallel!) installed on the same development machine?

Answer 8

thanks for your reply.

 

 

i have office in the new project dialog. i wish to re-ask my question with you.

 

I would like to add my own toolbars for all Ms-Excel that is installed in my machine. Whenever I open a new excel document, My tool bar should come with it.

 

some of the sites tell that we can use add-ins to create this.

 

but i can't use this add-in express due to its license.

 

actually i am getting this office option and excel workbook, word document, excel template, word template and outlook add-ins.

 

by using outlook add-ins i can create the tool bar and i did it.

 

i posted this forum to know the way of creating tool-bars in excel without using add-in express.

 

sorry to ask again and again. can you please tell me?

 

help is appreciated.

 

dhana.

Answer 9

Dhanasekaran Guruswamy wrote:

i have office in the new project dialog. i wish to re-ask my question with you.   I would like to add my own toolbars for all Ms-Excel that is installed in my machine. Whenever I open a new excel document, My tool bar should come with it.   some of the sites tell that we can use add-ins to create this.   but i can't use this add-in express due to its license.   actually i am getting this office option and excel workbook, word document, excel template, word template and outlook add-ins. by using outlook add-ins i can create the tool bar and i did it.   i posted this forum to know the way of creating tool-bars in excel without using add-in express. sorry to ask again and again. can you please tell me?

I am trying to help you. But you say you can't find the Add-in templates. Since I can't look over your shoulder, I'm walking step-by-step through what I see in order to determine what may be missing on your system. The Word and Excel document-level customization templates, as well as a tool for the Outlook Add-in are part of the first edition of VSTO. To get add-in templates for Word and Excel the second edition (VSTO 2005 SE) is required. This tool is not part of VS Team Suite as it was developed and released later.

 

I gave you a link to that tool for download. did you download and install it? If you did, you should be seeing sub-folders under the Office folder for 2003 Add-ins and 2007 Add-ins. If you're not seeing them, then there was a problem with the installation. This is what I'm trying to determine.

 

In an earlier message you say you've performed these steps. Apparently you're not seeing these folders, so the installation was not successful. Do you see an entry for the 2005 SE tool in Windows/Control Panel/Add_Remove Programs (or the Vista equivalent)? If yes, are you able to run a Repair of the installation? do you get any errors?

Answer 10

thanks for your reply.

 

 

1. i checked the control panel for SE. It is existed. I have the following in Add/Remove programs,

a. Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition

b. Visual Studio Tools for Office Second Edition Runtime

 

2. I checked the office installation path. "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\ADDINS". I dont see any sub-folders on it.

 

3. I again run the setup file and it told that the installation was completed successfully. but still the sub-folders are not found.

 

what should i do now? pls suggest.

 

dhana.

Answer 11

<<I checked the office installation path. "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\ADDINS". I dont see any sub-folders on it. >>

 

The sub-folders to which I was referring are (or should be) under the Visual Studio File/New/Project dialog box, the Office folder. That is where the Visual Studio Templates for Excel and Word Add-ins would be located.

 

If you don't see them, it is a mystery to me why not.

 

I'm not familiar with what this "add-in express" you mentioned does. Is it possible that this is interfering with the display of the VSTO Add-in templates in Visual Studio?

Answer 12

 

sorry cindy. i dont find anything in the dialog box.

 

yes. by using add-in express (http://www.add-in-express.com/) we can able to create the excel add-in in the dialog box.

 

but its a thirdparty tool. i dont want to use any third party tool.

 

thanks for your reply.

 

dhana.

Answer 13

Dhanasekaran Guruswamy wrote:

3. I again run the setup file and it told that the installation was completed successfully. but still the sub-folders are not found.

 

Hi,

 

Instead of run the setup file again, I suggest you repair it from Add/Remove Progams list to see if it helps! If that still does not fix the issue, I think we may check if you installed two or more versions of Office in your develop machine. That is to say, to install VSTO SE and get Add-in templates, you must not have both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 installed at the same time.

 

If it is urgent to develop an Excel Add in for you, you can also consider use Shared Add In created from Other Project Types->Extensibility->Shared Add-in.

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/302901 for more information

 

 

Thanks,

Ji