OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office Uses IDTExtensibility2 Interface
It is so sad how Microsoft-centric coding blokes look down on Office Development—because they think it is kiddie stuff. They should look down on it because it is too hard! The difficulties with programming Office solutions are related to the immense size of Office APIs, Microsoft’s security countermeasures to make Office “safe for democracy” and the lack of a coherent, progressive, narrative Office development message (preferably led by a charismatic and/or publicly responsible Office Team manager or two).
It is easier to build using Scott Guthrie’s tools (because he shows better responsibly to the public as well as to the orderly arrangement of technology) than to the people fighting for the cash cow of Redmond. Mike Hernandez, Kathleen and Andrew, I’m confused about Office development and unfortunately I’m too “stupid” not to blame myself. I blame you! You and the VSTO blimp! Your Office deployment story sucks! Your resources are stretched over at least three versions of Office and at least three versions of Windows—now including Vista. Wow. Now that I know how much work you have to do, I’m still blaming you! Are thinking about what’s wrong with me or what’s wrong with Office development and deployment?!
Anyway… It appears that VSTO and VSTO SE are actually kiddie stuff. According to David Thielen (who is possibly related to WinwardReports.com, an official Microsoft partner) in “Writing a Word Add-in—Part I”:
According to Microsoft, VSTO isn’t for commercial add-ins. (And I’m not sure of when you would want to use it. In fact, when I asked Microsoft P.R. for examples of when you would use VSTO—they could not give me examples either.)
I am sure David will be executed for this treason and the fact that he proudly proclaims that he is a Democrat in this time of Publican and Republican irreligious piety does not help him get into the local old boys club (that now includes girls). So what this supposedly means for those of us who actually want to build a “real” solution for Office, we should need “How to build an Office COM add-in by using Visual C# .NET.” It just so happens that the OpenXML/ODF Translator Add-in for Office project is also using the same method recommended by David Thielen and by Andrew Whitechapel (with stern warnings of lack of official support). And when you see the words ‘same method,’ search the source code for the IDTExtensibility2 interface. Whew! Put this article together with my last post on this subject and you would think that someone at Microsoft does not want us to write “real” solutions for Office!
The basic question for me is, ‘How can IDTExtensibility2-interface-based Office Solutions be considered “professional” when Microsoft, the proprietary professor, will not support them?’ More (or less) on this later…