Features Available by Office Application and Project Type
Visual Studio has several types of project templates that support different business scenarios for Microsoft Office applications, including the following types:
Document-level customizations.
Application-level add-ins.
Not all applications can use every project type. For example, document-level 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. For more information about the different project types, see Office Solutions Development Overview.
Note
Office project templates are available only in some editions of Visual Studio. For more information, see Configuring a Computer to Develop Office Solutions.
Project Types Available for Different Microsoft Office Applications
The following table shows the applications that you can use with each project type.
Project types |
Microsoft Office application |
|---|---|
Document-level customizations |
Excel 2013 Word 2013 Excel 2010 Word 2010 |
Application-level add-ins |
Excel 2013 InfoPath 2013 Outlook 2013 PowerPoint 2013 Project 2013 Visio 2013 Word 2013 Excel 2010 InfoPath 2010 Outlook 2010 PowerPoint 2010 Project 2010 Visio 2010 Word 2010 |
Features Available in Different Project Types
The following table shows which project types provide each feature.
Feature |
Project types that provide the feature |
Further reading |
|---|---|---|
Actions pane. |
Document-level projects. |
|
ClickOnce deployment. |
Application-level and document-level projects. |
|
Custom task panes. |
Application-level projects for the following applications:
|
|
Custom XML parts. |
Document-level projects. Application level projects for the following applications:
|
|
Data cache. |
Document-level projects. |
|
Expose an object in an application-level add-in to other Microsoft Office solutions. |
Application-level projects. |
Calling Code in Application-Level Add-ins from Other Office Solutions |
The following host controls:
|
Document-level projects. Application-level projects for Word and Excel. |
|
The following host controls:
|
Document-level projects. |
|
Multi-project deployment. |
Document-level projects. Application-level projects. |
Walkthrough: Deploying Multiple Office Solutions in a Single ClickOnce Installer |
Outlook form regions. |
Application-level projects for Outlook. |
|
Post-deployment actions. |
Document-level projects. Application-level projects. |
Walkthrough: Copying a Document to the End User Computer after a ClickOnce Installation |
Ribbon customizations. |
Document-level projects. Application-level projects for the following applications:
|
|
Visual document designer. |
Document-level projects. |
See Also
Concepts
Office Solutions Development Overview
Host Items and Host Controls Overview
Cached Data in Document-Level Customizations