Word Application-Level Add-in Development

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Word 2003 Word 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

An application-level add-in for Microsoft Office Word consists of an assembly that is loaded by Word. The assembly typically extends Word by customizing the user interface (UI) and by automating Word. Unlike a document-level customization, which is associated with a specific document, functionality that you implement in an add-in is not restricted to any single document.

For general information about application-level add-ins, see Getting Started Programming Application-Level Add-Ins and Architecture of Application-Level Add-Ins.

Word Add-in Programming Model

When you create a Word add-in project, Visual Studio Tools for Office generates a class, called ThisAddIn, which is the foundation of your solution. This class provides a starting point for writing your code, and it also exposes the object model of Word to your add-in.

For more information about the ThisAddIn class and other Visual Studio Tools for Office features you can use in an add-in, see Programming Application-Level Add-Ins.

Customizing the User Interface of Word

For Word 2007, you can customize the UI in the following ways:

• Create a custom task pane.

  For more information, see Custom Task Panes Overview.

• Add custom tabs that appear on the Ribbon.

  For more information, see Ribbon Overview.

• Add custom groups to a built-in tab that appears on the Ribbon.

  For more information, see How to: Customize a Built-in Tab.

• Starting in Visual Studio 2008 Service Pack 1 (SP1), you can add managed controls to any open document at run time.

  For more information, see Adding Controls to Office Documents at Run Time.

• Starting in SP1, you can add smart tags to any open document or to a specific document.

  For more information, see How to: Add Smart Tags to Word Documents.

For Word 2003, you can customize the UI in the following ways:

• Add custom toolbars and toolbar items.

  For more information, see How to: Create Office Toolbars Programmatically.

• Add menus and menu items.

  For more information, see How to: Create Office Menus Programmatically.

For more information about customizing the UI of Word and other Microsoft Office applications, see Office UI Customization.

See Also

Tasks

Walkthrough: Creating Your First Application-Level Add-in for Word

Walkthrough: Adding Controls to a Document at Run Time in an Application-Level Add-In

Concepts

Getting Started Programming Application-Level Add-Ins

Programming Application-Level Add-Ins

Office UI Customization

Change History

Date	History	Reason
July 2008	Added information about adding managed controls and smart tags to documents by using application-level add-ins.	SP1 feature change.