I searched a lot in MSDN to find an VSTO acadamic or express version. But the price range $799 is too much for students or beginners trying to be an office developer. Can Microsoft provide a version to the students, or lobbiyst so that they can use different features in VSTO.

Is it possible to use the features like Excel object model, smart tages,action page, smart documents, xml usuage, COM, and deployment using any other less expensive tools. I myself, like lot of new learners, are really interested using new features of VSTO but pricing range is too high for students and new developers.

I Mrus,

There actually is no express version of our Visual Studio Tools for Office SKU. As you have noted, there is a Visual Studio express version, but it does not have the cool Office development tools that our product offers. Here's a comparison of SKUs:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/products/compare/default.aspx

All that said, you can still do interop Office development with other versions of Visual Studio. The disadvantage is that you will not have our custom tools. But, you can at least get in the game.

John.

Thank you.

I am taking a class where they will use VSTO 2005;As you mentioned interop Office development tools with other version of Visual Studio, I downloaded interop office development and also followed the intstruction. If I create office 2003 xml and smart document and other related features using interop or visual studio vb.net express or C# express, I know I will be missing features of VSTO 2005, but can I still do the functions of VSTO.

Is there any tutorial out in msdn for interop and visual studio express integration.

I was also having problem before with SQL Server express. Can I create office programs in c# or vb express and also use sql server express to retrieve my data, put it in xml format and then create office documents?

I apologize I have too many questions. As I am very new in development.

Thanks again.