Common Characteristics of Wizards

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You can create a wizard by using any of the following:

  • A Microsoft® Word, Microsoft® Excel, or Microsoft® PowerPoint® template
  • A Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or Microsoft® Access application-specific add-in
  • A COM add-in for Microsoft® Office XP applications or for the Microsoft® Visual Basic® Editor

What you choose depends on the level of complexity of your wizard, which application or applications in which you want it to run, and how you want to distribute it to your users. A template or application-specific add-in is the simplest application. A COM add-in might be more complex, because the add-in DLL and any dependent files must be properly registered on the user's computer.

Some other common characteristics of wizards include:

  • A form or set of forms that gathers information from the user and that appears when the user launches the wizard
  • Navigation buttons (such as the standard Next, Previous, Cancel, and Finish buttons) that make it possible for the user to move back and forth between pages
  • The ability to launch the wizard either from a command bar control or by creating a new document based on the wizard
  • An optional special file extension

As you can see, wizards do not significantly differ from add-ins or templates.

**Tip   **Rather than creating a new form for each page of your wizard, you can create a multi-page control on a form, with a unique control layout on each page. Then, when the user clicks the Next or Previous button, move the focus to the appropriate page. This way, you are not required to re-create the form background and buttons for each page of the wizard. Also, you do not have to manage the opening and closing of multiple forms.

See also

Creating Wizards | Word Wizards | Excel Wizards | PowerPoint Wizards | Access Wizards | COM Add-ins vs. Application-Specific Add-ins