Visual Designer for Office The visual designer interface for Microsoft Office integrates the functionality of Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Word into the development environment. Previously, creating a solution using Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) meant moving back and forth between an Office application and the development environment. Now when a developer creates a new solution built around an Excel or Word document, the document opens in the development environment. Office functionality, including Office toolbars and menus, are available within the development environment. Excel functionality such as formulas, can also be used exactly as they function in Office. This means that designers can work on both the design of the document and the underlying code using the same set of tools. To view this functionality, launch a new Office or Word document solution within Visual Studio 2005. Building a Microsoft Excel Workbook Solution in Visual Studio 2005