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Features Available by Application and Project Type

Visual Studio Tools for Office has several types of projects that support different business scenarios for Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system, including the following types:

  • Document-level customizations.

  • Application-level add-ins.

  • SharePoint workflows.

Not all applications can use every project type. For example, document-level customization projects are available only for Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel. Similarly, some features are available only for certain types of projects or applications. For example, the actions pane is available only in document-level projects, and Ribbon extensions are available only for some applications in the 2007 Microsoft Office system. For more information about the different project types, see Visual Studio Tools for Office Project Templates Overview.

Projects for Microsoft Office 2003 and the 2007 Microsoft Office system use different versions of the Visual Studio Tools for Office runtime. For more information, see Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime Overview.

Note

Visual Studio Tools for Office projects are available only in some editions of Visual Studio. For more information, see Installing Visual Studio Tools for Office.

Project Types Available for Different Microsoft Office Applications

The following table shows which applications you can use with each project type.

Project types

2007 Microsoft Office system

Microsoft Office 2003

Document-level customizations

Word 2007

Excel 2007

Word 2003

Excel 2003

Application-level add-ins

Excel 2007

InfoPath 2007

Outlook 2007

PowerPoint 2007

Project 2007

Visio 2007

Word 2007

Excel 2003

Outlook 2003

PowerPoint 2003

Project 2003

Visio 2003

Word 2003

SharePoint workflows

SharePoint Server 2007

Not supported

Features Available in Different Project Types

The following table shows which project types provide each feature.

Feature

Projects types that provide the feature

Further reading

Actions pane.

All document-level projects.

Actions Pane Overview

ClickOnce deployment.

Application-level and document-level projects for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Deploying Office Solutions (2007 System)

Custom task panes.

Application-level projects for the following applications:

  • Excel 2007

  • InfoPath 2007

  • Outlook 2007

  • PowerPoint 2007

  • Word 2007

Custom Task Panes Overview

Custom XML parts.

Document-level projects for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Application level projects for the following applications:

  • Excel 2007

  • PowerPoint 2007

  • Word 2007

Custom XML Parts Overview

Data cache.

All document-level projects.

Data in Document-Level Customizations

Expose an object in a document-level customization to VBA code in the document.

Document-level projects for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Calling Code in Document-Level Customizations from VBA

Expose an object in an application-level add-in to other Microsoft Office solutions.

All application-level projects.

Calling Code in Application-Level Add-ins from Other Solutions

The following host controls:

  • Chart

  • ListObject

  • NamedRange

  • Content

  • Bookmark

All document-level projects.

Application-level projects for Word 2007 and Excel 2007.

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

The following host controls:

  • XMLMappedRange

  • XMLNode

  • XMLNodes

All document-level projects.

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

Outlook form regions.

Application-level projects for Outlook 2007.

Creating Outlook Form Regions

Ribbon customizations.

Document-level projects for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

Application-level projects for the following applications:

  • Excel 2007

  • Outlook 2007

  • PowerPoint 2007

  • Word 2007

Ribbon Overview

Smart tags (using the Visual Studio Tools for Office programming model).

All document-level projects.

Application-level projects for Word 2007 and Excel 2007.

Smart Tags Overview

Visual document designer.

All document-level projects.

Office Documents in the Visual Studio Environment Overview

See Also

Concepts

Office Solutions Development Overview

SharePoint Workflow Solutions

Actions Pane Overview

Ribbon Overview

Creating Outlook Form Regions

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

Smart Tags Overview

Data in Document-Level Customizations

Office Documents in the Visual Studio Environment Overview

Deploying Office Solutions (2007 System)

Other Resources

Getting Started (Visual Studio Tools for Office)

Change History

Date

History

Reason

July 2008

Added information about host item and host control support in application-level add-ins.

SP1 feature change.