Task pane button does not appear in ribbon with Office on Windows(build 16.0.5387)

Question

Dear Microsoft Team, I am creating Excel Add-in now and I have two questions about it. First one is that Show Taskpane button does not appear in ribbon when I build the project. Is is because the fact I use Office on Windows(build 16.0.5387)? Second one is that I would like to know if it is possible to open a task pane automatically without explicit user interaction when we run Excel after I install the add-in with the same version of Office. Or do we have to choose the add-in in the shared folder and insert it everytime we use? Best regards,

Answer 1

The Show Taskpane button not appearing in the ribbon could be due to a few different factors. Here are a few things to check:

Make sure the code that adds the button to the ribbon is being executed. You can add a breakpoint in the code to see if it's being hit.

Verify that the button is correctly defined in the manifest file for the add-in.

Check that the manifest file is properly installed in the correct location. You can verify this by going to the "File" tab in Excel, selecting "Options," then "Add-Ins," and finally checking the "Manage" dropdown to see if your add-in is listed there.

It is possible to open the task pane automatically when the user opens Excel, but it does require explicit user interaction the first time the add-in is installed. Here's how to do it:

In your manifest file, set the "RequestedRuntime" attribute to "1.1" or higher. This will allow your add-in to use the "AutoShowTaskpaneWithDocument" feature.

After the add-in is installed for the first time, the user will need to open it manually by clicking on it in the "Insert Add-ins" dialog. Once the add-in is opened, the task pane will be displayed automatically whenever the user opens a document associated with your add-in.

Note that the user can turn off the "AutoShowTaskpaneWithDocument" feature at any time by going to the "Insert Add-ins" dialog and unchecking the box next to your add-in.