Work with Extended Overrides of the manifest

Some extensibility features of Office Add-ins are configured with JSON files that are hosted on your server, instead of with the add-in's XML manifest.

Note

This article assumes that you're familiar with Office Add-in manifests and their role in add-ins. Please read Office Add-ins manifest, if you haven't recently.

The following table specifies the extensibility features that require an extended override along with links to documentation of the feature.

Feature	Development Instructions
Keyboard shortcuts	Add Custom keyboard shortcuts to your Office Add-ins

The schema that defines the JSON format is extended-manifest schema.

Tip

This article is somewhat abstract. Consider reading one of the articles in the table to add clarity to the concepts.

Tell Office where to find the JSON file

Use the manifest to tell Office where to find the JSON file. Immediately below (not inside) the <VersionOverrides> element in the manifest, add an ExtendedOverrides element. Set the Url attribute to the full URL of a JSON file. The following is an example of the simplest possible <ExtendedOverrides> element.

    ...
    </VersionOverrides>  
    <ExtendedOverrides Url="https://contoso.com/addin/extended-overrides.json"></ExtendedOverrides>
</OfficeApp>

The following is an example of a very simple extended overrides JSON file. It assigns keyboard shortcut CTRL+SHIFT+A to a function (defined elsewhere) that opens the add-in's task pane.

{
    "actions": [
        {
            "id": "SHOWTASKPANE",
            "type": "ExecuteFunction",
            "name": "Show task pane for add-in"
        }
    ],
    "shortcuts": [
        {
            "action": "SHOWTASKPANE",
            "key": {
                "default": "CTRL+SHIFT+A"
            }
        }
    ]
}

Localize the extended overrides file

If your add-in supports multiple locales, you can use the ResourceUrl attribute of the <ExtendedOverrides> element to point Office to a file of localized resources. The following is an example.

    ...
    </VersionOverrides>  
    <ExtendedOverrides Url="https://contoso.com/addin/extended-overrides.json" 
                       ResourceUrl="https://contoso.com/addin/my-resources.json">
    </ExtendedOverrides>
</OfficeApp>

For more details about how to create and use the resources file, how to refer to its resources in the extended overrides file, and for additional options not discussed here, see Localize extended overrides.