Developing Office Applications Using VBA

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This content is no longer actively maintained. It is provided as is, for anyone who may still be using these technologies, with no warranties or claims of accuracy with regard to the most recent product version or service release.

Microsoft® Office application development is typically the process of customizing an Office application to perform some function or service. Developing an Office application can range from writing a simple Microsoft® Visual Basic® for Applications (VBA) procedure to creating a sophisticated financial analysis and reporting application. An Office developer is anyone who uses the programmability features of Office to make an application do something better, faster, or more efficiently than it could be done before. An Office application is an application that uses an Office application or component as part of its overall architecture.

Every custom application is, in some sense, an answer to a particular problem or requirement. When you understand the problem, the success of your application will depend on your ability to deliver a response that uses appropriate tools tailored to the experience level of the people who will be using your application.

In This Section

  • Office Objects and Object Models
    Integrate the features from two or more Office applications into a single application to amplify and focus users' productivity.
  • Working with Office Applications
    Take advantage of different objects, collections of objects, properties, methods, and events to build your application.
  • Working with Shared Office Components
    Search for files, use the Office Assistant, manipulate command bars, read and write document properties, read and write script, and hook add-ins to your Office application using a set of shared objects available in all Office applications.
  • Getting the Most Out of Visual Basic for Applications
    Write code that is fast, efficient, easy to read and maintain, and, if possible, reusable with a solid working knowledge of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) — what features the language includes and what you can do with it.
  • Add-ins, Templates, Wizards, and Libraries
    Create and use COMAddIn objects (a shared Office component in the Microsoft Office XP object library).
  • Developing Applications with Microsoft Office Developer
    Projects are the building blocks of an Office Developer application. If a project is a building block for an application, then an application is the foundation.
  • Creating Projects
    A project consists of separate components that are stored as individual files in an application. A simple project might consist of a form or HTML document, a database, source code files, and a project file.
  • Developing Workflow Applications for Exchange Server
    Generally, the term "workflow" is used to describe applications that are modeled as business processes. Typical workflow applications include forms routing/approval, document review/publishing, and issue tracking.
  • Developing Workflow Applications for SQL Server
    Microsoft Office Developer offers a set of tools that make it possible for you to apply business processes on items in a SQL Server database quickly.
  • Developing a Digital Dashboard using Web Parts
    A digital dashboard is a container that provides a customized display of information consolidated from various information sources.