Jayson (of Excel Ninja) asked about useful resources for folks wanting to develop Excel with languages other than VBA. I’ll limit this list to .Net stuff, VSTO and everything else!
Here are some good links to get you started!
XL Dennis: His blog, his knowledge base and an excellent set of articles on managed com addins, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10
This blog: VSTO and .Net categorises (these need consolidating into one)
Forums: xtream vb talk has a really good Office.Net section and there is the support formu for PED here
Blogs From MS People: Andrew Whitechapel (tec genius) , Kathleen McGrath (instructional godess), Eric Carter (Office Dev Legend).
Books: Professional Excel Development, VSTO for mearl Mortal, Microsoft.NET Development for Microsoft Office, Visual Studio Tools for Office
Tools: VSTO Power Tools, and one of many C# to VB converters
Anyone else have any gems hidden away?
Related posts:
Ross,
First of all thanks for Your kindness to set up my sites on the list :)
Second, I believe You have covered it well. However, I would like to add the VSTO forum at MSDN to the list: http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vsto/threads/
Once again thank You,
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
Yes good catch.
I think what this post does highlight is the lack of web content around VSTO/.Net stuff. I can’t think of a single excel blog apart from yours or mine that has got one line of VB.Net on in, related to Excel. It speaks volumes about the communities views towards it!! I think the main reason for this is that MS makes it hard for 99% of Excel devs and power users to use .Net with Office?
Ross,
From a general point of view I do agree. But I would address the following as explanations to the present situation we see:
- The professional version and above of VS.NET are expensive for individuals unless the company pays for it.
- Most Excel developers lack the knowledge of how to use VS.NET and as long as VBA is around they can manage (almost) all the requests with it.
- As long as the MSFT Excel MVPs ‘stars’ avoid everything that ‘smell’ .NET other Excel developer disregard it as well. It reminds me about the case with classic VB and unmanaged COM Add-ins.
- MSFT lack the insight on how to approach the Excel developers community mainly because they don’t understand that Excel is already a development platform.
- MSFT believes that by pushing for C# ‘die-hard VBA’ Excel developers will be attracted to the VS.NET.
Kind regards,
Dennis
Ross
Thanks for the references (and link to my blog! – now I’ll have to post more!). I’m looking forward to reading up on the subject and getting my hands dirty.
Nice post! I’d like to add for advanced users or commercial applications I recommend GemBox .NET Excel component. It has many advantages over Excel Automation and Interop which come handy when working on serious applications.
Cheers