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Features Available by Office Application and Project Type

Visual Studio 2010 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 2007 and Excel 2010

Word 2007 and Word 2010

Application-level add-ins

Excel 2007 and Excel 2010

InfoPath 2007 and InfoPath 2010

Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010

PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010

Project 2007 and Project 2010

Visio 2007 and Visio 2010

Word 2007 and 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.

Actions Pane Overview

ClickOnce deployment.

Application-level and document-level projects.

Deploying Office Solutions

Custom task panes.

Application-level projects for the following applications:

  • Excel

  • InfoPath

  • Outlook

  • PowerPoint

  • Word

Custom Task Panes Overview

Custom XML parts.

Document-level projects.

Application level projects for the following applications:

  • Excel

  • PowerPoint

  • Word

Custom XML Parts Overview

Data cache.

Document-level projects.

Cached Data in Document-Level Customizations

Expose an object in a document-level customization to VBA code in the document.

Document-level projects.

Calling Code in Document-Level Customizations from VBA

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:

  • Chart

  • ListObject

  • NamedRange

  • Content controls

  • Bookmark

Document-level projects.

Application-level projects for Word and Excel.

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

The following host controls:

  • XMLMappedRange

  • XMLNode

  • XMLNodes

Document-level projects.

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

Multi-project deployment.

Document-level projects.

Application-level projects.

Walkthrough: Deploying Multiple Office Solutions in a Single ClickOnce Installer for the .NET Framework 4

Outlook form regions.

Application-level projects for Outlook.

Creating Outlook Form Regions

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:

  • Excel 2007 and Excel 2010

  • InfoPath 2010

  • Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010

  • PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2010

  • Project 2010

  • Visio 2010

  • Word 2007 and Word 2010

Ribbon Overview

Smart tags (using the programming model for Office projects in Visual Studio, rather than using the Smart Tag SDK).

NoteNote
Smart tags are deprecated in Excel 2010 and Word 2010. For more information, see Smart Tags Overview.

Document-level projects.

Application-level projects for Word and Excel.

Smart Tags Overview

Visual document designer.

Document-level projects.

Office Projects in the Visual Studio Environment

See Also

Concepts

Office Solutions Development Overview

Host Items and Host Controls Overview

Cached Data in Document-Level Customizations

Other Resources

Getting Started (Office Development in Visual Studio)

Actions Pane Overview

Ribbon Overview

Creating Outlook Form Regions

Smart Tags Overview

Deploying Office Solutions