Creating Wizards

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A wizard is a template or add-in that walks a user through a series of steps to create a new document, spreadsheet, presentation, database, Web application, or some object within any of those applications. Typically, when users launch a wizard, they are presented with a series of information-gathering forms, and once they have entered all the necessary information in a form, the wizard creates the new component.

The advantage of using a wizard to deliver a solution is that it's easy to use, and you can include detailed instructions on each frame of the wizard. For example, Word includes a Letter Wizard that gathers information from the user and then creates a new letter based on that information. The wizard saves the user from having to lay the letter out correctly and from having to think about where the information goes in the final document. The Word letter templates provide the same result as the Letter Wizard, but the user has to figure out where each bit of information in the letter goes and navigate around the document to insert it.

This chapter has already discussed how to create templates and add-ins. Once you understand how to build these, creating wizards is fairly intuitive. The following sections provide some additional information that may help you with the process.