I'm quite confused with what are the necessary tools for VSTO develpment. Specifically I want to manipulate Excel 2003/2007 documents programmatically. I did quite a lot of VBA before, if you want to relate any answer to that.
Few questions I have about VSTO:
- Can I use Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition C#/C++ for this?
- Do I need to have .NET framework installed?
- Does the resulting VSTO program need to have a copy of Office installed in the same system to run?
Direct links to the relevant tools/plugins/IDE will be appreciated.
Note: I'm totally new to VSTO and .NET but an Office power user. I have experience with COM programming.
Best Answer
Yeah, it can get confusing, especially given the skip-level naming conventions, etc. Essentially, you'll need:
A couple of tips:
There are some sites that you should take a look at:
Finally, to save the best for last, this is the book I read when I was just starting out and it was very helpful: VSTO for Mere Mortals(TM): A VBA Developer's Guide to Microsoft Office Development Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office