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.	Actions Pane Overview
ClickOnce deployment.	Application-level and document-level projects.	Deploying an Office Solution
Custom task panes.	Application-level projects for the following applications: Excel InfoPath Outlook PowerPoint Word	Custom Task Panes
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 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.	Deploying Multiple Projects in a Single Installer
Outlook form regions.	Application-level projects for Outlook.	Creating Outlook Form Regions
Post-deployment actions.	Document-level projects. Application-level projects.	Creating Post-Deployment Actions
Ribbon customizations.	Document-level projects. Application-level projects for the following applications: 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	Ribbon 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

Deploying an Office Solution