.net Woes VSTO

Trying to start using VSTO has proved to be a long, frustrating, but eventually fruitful task.

I started by just starting. "Programmers don't read user manuals!"

I got frustrated when adding a tool bar was absolutely impossible. Here I had uplinked VSTO from my msdn subscription, had added VSTO SE, and could not get the addition of a tool bar done, something that in vb script was trivial.

I did manage to add code to excel, to word, and to Power Point (I now know VSTO SE gave me that capability). But after doing extensive work directly with vb script on all these applications, getting it done in VSTO was a pain.

No matter. I tried to publish my code so as to install it with my clients. From VS, my code worked, when I published, it did not.

After research, I learned that VSTO has special requirements with security and these have to be met before we can install the package properly. I also discovered 2 very large set of instructions which dealt with how to create a deliverable setup which will do what is needed to install VSTO packages.

By this time I was so late in delivering that I delivered by VB Script, which, thank God, worked.

I also bought Kathleen Mc Grath's "VSTO for Mere Mortals" and decided to "read the instructions!"

I almost immediately emailed Kathleen asking why my projects where not including the Excel spreadsheets (or word worksheets) which appeared in her examples. I was really excited about using this facility, but it did not work on my system.

She graciously informed me that VSTO, not just VSTO SE was required to do this.

I dutifully downloaded and installed VSTO on my VS Professional version, and no noticeable change was seen. It still did not show the spreadsheet or word in the design page of the studio.

I then removed all vestiges of the studio, the additions I had added during the years, and even SQL.

Having cleaned my machine, I added only VSTO, and finally, my design page contained excel spreadsheets as advertised.

I have not yet delivered anything with VSTO. But I'll try to let you know how much suffering was involved.
Leon