Hi,

I just installed the VSTO 2005 SE on a Windows Vista RC1 box with the client tools of 2007 Microsoft Office System (Word, Excel, etc.). Before installing it I followed the instructions to only have one version of office insalled, so I uninstalled the 2003 Office client tools, all of them. I have a VS2k5 Team Suite installed which by default installs the VSTO 2005 version. I did not uninstall VSTO 2005 since it was not mentionend to do so, only if a prior version of the VSTO 2005 SE had been installed, one should uninstall and even re-image, but I did not have any of those bits installed prior to insatlling the VSTO 2005 SE.

So the installation of the VSTO 2005 SE went OK. Starting Visual Studio 2005 and trying to create a Word project I get the following error:

"A compatible version of Microsoft Office Word 2003 is not installed on this computer. You must install Microsoft Office Word 2003 SP1 and the Visual Studio for Office runtime (VSTOR.exe). Select the Repair option when you install the runtime. VSTOR.exe is available on the..."

Of course do I not have a version of 2003 office availalbe anymore since I uninstalled because the download page http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=5012A573-0D84-4E39-983C-CA22F2107B07&displaylang=en#Overview says I can only have one version of office and I decided to go for the 2007 version! So please what is the whole point here? Could you provide a work a round for that situation?

Regards,
Andy

Hello,

If you want to create an application-level add-in for Word 2007 by using VSTO 2005 SE, make sure that you are using the "Word Add-in" project that is available when you expand the "Office" node and then the "2007 Add-ins" node in the New Project dialog. The error message you are seeing is to be expected if you are using the "Word Document" or "Word Template" projects that are available on the "Office" node itself. These document-level projects are provided only in VSTO 2005, not VSTO 2005 SE, and these projects do require Word 2003 to be installed on the development computer.

However, if you are in fact getting this error message by using the "Word Add-in" project template, then that sounds like it might be a bug. Please let us know if that is indeed the case.

I hope this helps,

McLean Schofield

Hi again,

McLean Schofield, what do you mean with you statement here? I thought that by creating an Add-In project one would create an office add-in? How can I develop a task pane or even deal with the ribbon development when creating an add-in project? I really can't see the point here? Shouldn't Word, Excell and even InfoPath open up embedded inside in VS as active document servers hosted in VS sponsered active document containers? I just can't see all this happening!

Also with the InfoPath office project template there is a different problem but another error message. So when creating an InfoPath Form Template project I get this error message:

"Error: this template attempted to load an untrusted component 'Microsoft.Office.InfoPath.Vsta, Version=12.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c, processorArchitecture=MSIL'. For more information on this problem and how to enable this template, please see documentation on Customizing Project Templates."

So at this time I am in a situation where I want to develop InfoPath 2007 Forms in VS2k5 and Word 2007 & Excel 2007 Smart/Task-Panes using the VSTO 2005 SE but I can't without the necessary support for doing so. And one can only have one version of office installed (2003 or 2007 that is). Now does this mean the only thing one can do with the VSTO 2005 SE Beta version is developing add-ins for Office 2003 or 2007 and no task panes and all these things?

Please give us some hint/help here?

Regards,
Andy.

Hi Andy

Keep in mind that you're working with beta software, both with Office 2007 and the VSTO 2005 SE. Neither should be installed on your main machine, only in a "throw-away" testing environment. The VSTO beta is only for working with application-level Add-ins. It doesn't support VSTO document-level projects. You can use VSTO 2005 SE Beta to create custom task panes for the applications listed in the "New Project" dialog box - for the entire application. The tutorial delivered with the beta describes the basic steps.

For document-specific projects, you're going to have to wait a bit until the next beta is ready :-)

You should post the InfoPath error in a separate message, to make sure it gets the necessary visibility. The people who deals with InfoPath questions may not see it, buried in this thread.

Hi Andy.

To expand on Cindy's response, there are two main types of projects you can create by using different versions of VSTO:

• Document-level customizations, in which your code is associated with a single document/workbook.
• Application-level add-ins, in which your code is associated with the application itself.

VSTO 2005 provided support for document-level customizations for Word 2003 and Excel 2003. These projects are available if in the New Project dialog if you click the "Office" node. VSTO 2005 provides a design-time view of the document or workbook in Visual Studio when you use these projects.

VSTO 2005 SE provides support for add-ins for many Office 2003 and Office 2007 applications, but this release does not provide any additional support for document-level customizations. The new add-in projects are available in the New Project dialog if you expand the "Office" node and then click "2007". Note that these projects do not provide you with a design-time view of the application in Visual Studio; instead, all of your work is done in code.

If you want to create custom task panes or Ribbon customizations for Excel 2007 by using VSTO 2005 SE, then you want to create an add-in by using the "Excel Add-in" project that is available in the New Project dialog if you expand the "Office" node and then click "2007". As Cindy noted, the VSTO 2005 SE Beta includes a tutorial document that will get you started with creating custom task panes and Ribbon customizations in add-in projects.

You should only get the error you quoted in your original post if you try to create a document-level customization without having Word 2003 or Excel 2003 installed on the development computer. If you are getting this error when creating an add-in for Excel 2007, and you have Excel 2007 installed on the development computer, then this sounds like a bug. Please let us know if that is indeed the case.

If what you really want is to create a document-level customization for Excel 2007, then you will have to wait for an upcoming Orcas CTP. VSTO 2005 SE does not provide any support for document-level customizations, and VSTO 2005 only supports document-level customizations for Excel 2003 and Word 2003.

I hope this helps,

McLean Schofield