Insiders Fast: Mac Add-ins that Extend the Ribbon!

Question

Hi Insiders,

Mi name is Humberto Lezama from the Office Extensibility team and I’m excited to let you know that add-ins on the Mac can now natively integrate with Office apps by extending the Office Ribbon. This functionality was first released on Windows and Office Online and today we are bringing Mac to parity, starting with Insiders Fast.

With add-ins you can add extra functionality to Office and we have a built-in store that makes it a breeze to find and install hundreds of add-ins. And now with this feature, add-ins can integrate natively with the Office UI.

Here is how you can try this feature

1. Make sure you have Office for Mac build [170124] or greater. If you are in Insiders Fast and have the latest updates, you should be good.
2. Open Word, Excel or PowerPoint and launch the store from Insert->Add-ins->Store.  Outlook for Mac also has this feature available now for Insiders, you can find the Outlook store on Home>Store.
3. Search and install an add-in that uses commands. Some good examples:

Word

• Pickit
• Lucidcharts
• Emoji Keyboard
• IWritter Templates for Word
• Content Chooser

Excel

• Lucidchart
• Content Chooser

PowerPoint

• Pickit
• Shuttestock
• Emoji Keyboard
• Pexels

You are welcome to install other add-ins too but keep in mind that they might not have been updated yet to integrate with the Office ribbon.

Known issues:

• You may get “Error loading add-in” while installing from the Store due to an authentication issue.
• You can’t remove/change Add-in buttons from ribbon/QAT customization UI. You can however uninstall the add-in (from “My add-ins”) and the buttons will be removed.

Work around for the “Error loading add-in” authentication issue

Make sure you are signed in to the Office store by

• Launching a non-command add-in for example:
  • Word:Wikipedia
  • Excel: Bing Maps
  • PowerPoint: Poll Everywhere
• If you get a sign-in prompt, sign with your account.
• Fully “Quit” and restart the App.

Information for developers.

As you know, we have various add-in technologies. The one I’m talking about here is web add-ins, some of you might still know it by its original code name, Agaves. The feature highlighted in this post is add-in commandswhich allows you to integrate with the Office UI.

If you are interested in learning more and creating your own add-ins we have all the information you need here:

1. Add-in documentation: https://dev.office.com/docs/add-ins/overview/office-add-ins
2. Mac preview of add-in commands: https://aka.ms/cmac

Please give this feature a go and if you have any feedback let us know!

Answer 1

Corentin's explanation is spot on.

Answer 2

Hi Jim,

You should be able to see the Store icon on your Outlook on Mac build (assuming you are on the right minimum version) and you have an O365 or Outlook.com account configured on your build.

Please see

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/outlookformac/2016/12/07/add-ins-for-outlook-2016-for-mac-now-in-insider-fast/ 

Can you please confirm your build number?

Thanks-

Bharathan

Answer 3

Thank you for trying things out. My understanding is that the feature for Outlook only works with the latest Exchange Services which are available in Office 365. So if you are connecting to, for example, an on-prem Exchange server then this feature is not available there yet. I've pinged the Outlook team and they will chime in further. Thank you!

Answer 4

Office 365. But connecting to a on-premise exchange server. 

My understanding is that it all depends on the account you use. The Office Store is available for Office 365 Exchange accounts and Outlook.com accounts that have been migrated to the new Exchange backend, but for on-premises Exchange accounts, the add-ons have to be made available through the local server (which is definitively not the case for my work account).

IMAP and POP accounts are out!

Corentin

Answer 5

Office 365. But connecting to a on-premise exchange server.