I have a query on the usage of windows form in excel add-in, application level.
Objective Statement:
Display customized windows form control, similar to a way a chart is being inserted into excel
Custom Pane
I have tried custom pane add-in but it seems to be on a entire workbook level, i need something on a worksheet level
Task Pane
I can't seem to use the task pane in application add-in for excel
Windows Form Control
When I click on a cell in excel i will lose focus to the windows form, i will need the windows to be together with the worksheet, but i can't use showdialog.
Thanks for the help in advance.
From your answer it is hard for me to figure out if you we are looking at a code solution here or something more high level, so I am going to assume that you are looking for a code solution, please correct me if I am wrong.
Have you considered using an OLE object or ActiveX?
There is an example from Microsoft here, how to develop an ActiveX control. (Here is some other walkthrough that I found helpful).
Just to give you a hint how it (the example mentioned above) looks like, here is the screenshot of the compiled example that I added onto the excel sheet:
ActiveX control can be added both manually, or by code, so I could imagine that you could also provide a COM Excel Add-in that would add some buttons onto the ribbon, that when pressed, would add the desired controls onto the sheet.
Related
I am trying to show a simple dialog before uninstall in NSIS. It consists of several predefined radio buttons (reasons for uninstalling), none of them checked initially. Uninstallation cannot continue until a user selects one of the radio buttons.
As a bonus, ideally I would like to have a custom reason text field too (toggle-able via last radio button). As well as 2 more text fields for custom text and email.
Then I need to take selected value(s) (checked radio button) as well as text fields data and either append it to my predefined URL to which I make a GET request using InetC or similar plugin before uninstaller exits; or laternatively construct a POST request to a predefined URL using InetC or similar plugin. I cannot figure out how to create such a dialog page. Any help would be appreciated.
What I am looking for:
First, you should get familiar with nsDialogs to create the interface according to your needs. Since nsDialogs is a function, you would then can call it as a custom page.
You can use my tool Visual & Installer (www.visual-installer.com) for Visual Studio 2005 - 2015 to fast write the NSIS code.
(If you are "writing" the installer - I assume you have some experiences with nsDialogs).
Also there are some other tools like NSIS Dialog Designer (http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?t=329801) which can help you and generate lot of code for you.
This tool is GUI based - designer similar to Visual Studio designer - but remember: the result is still the scripts!
I have to modify an old VB6 program that uses ActiveReports 2.0 at work and I am having some problems (BTW I have never used this program before and only have a basic knowledge of VB6)...
I have to make some text boxes biggers which is pretty easy to do but as soon as I move them a whole section of text (and not simply the content of that text box) disappear.
I have noticed that it was in some sort of section (sorry, I don't know how they call that) which englobed those text boxes so I made it bigger and that made no difference.
What could be causing this?
Thank you!
Nick
It sounds like the TextBox is inside a UserControl. A UserControl is created by a developer, and is basically one control with any number of other controls in it. You can check to see if there are any User Controls in your project in the Project Explorer (Ctrl+R).
One way to know exactly what class the control belongs to is to open your form in design mode (Shift+F7), click on the control, and look at the Properties window (F4). The drop-down list should show the currently selected control's class name in bold, then the name of the object.
What is the control's class? If it is anything other than TextBox, then this would explain the unexpected behavior you experienced.
I'm looking for some high-level help with determining the best type of Visual Studio 2010 project to use for an Excel custom application.
I will be developing a program that requires the user to enter a dataset in a particular way. Not using a form per se, but rather in columns and the program will need to do some custom validation on the items in order to prep the data. From there, the user will be able to conduct various operations on the data via a custom Ribbon and associated options. The program will also transmit the data via web service.
I've fooled around with the Add-In project and that gives me a lot of what I need but I'm wondering if a Template or Workbook project is better for this in terms of data entry and being able to "guide" the user a little more.
How do you go about choosing between which project type to use? Do all the project types support a custom Ribbon?
Sorry if this is too far off topic. I'm referring to VBA, not Visual Studio, but it might still be relevant.
With an AddIn, compared to a Workbook, you can separate your code from the user's data. So, if the code is complex, and you'll need to update it separately from user's workbooks with data, this is not a bad idea.
With an AddIn, you can add buttons that do things like check to make sure the user data workbook is ok, or process it in someway. However, the AddIn custom buttons will load ever time a user opens any Excel worksheet. This doesn't sound good, but in practice, isn't so bad. You can code your AddIn so it does nothing as long as no one uses a button, so it almost doesn't hurt load times, etc...
A Workbook might be useful if you need to really guide the user - that is, you cannot rely on the user to hit a button to verify something, and instead you need to verify on every change, for example. However, the workbook solution incorporates the user data and your code in the same workbook, so if you need to update the code for existing users' data, that's harder.
I use a combination of AddIn (.xlam) with buttons, and a template (with minimal self-describing data only).
I'm not sure about the template-only option, so won't comment on that.
I'm trying to get to grips with customising a Ribbon Bar for a converted A2003 app. I'm trying to work out how to use my own custom images on button controls in the ribbon. Can anyone point me to an example for Access 2007 that can do this pls?
Please check this MSDN article (Adding Custom Dynamic Menus to the Office Fluent User Interface) and see if it helps you. Furthermore I would point you to the specifying image resource MSDN article, because you need different sized images for different sized buttons - read the bottom of my post to make it easier on you.
I believe there was also custom images within the official MS example on ribbon extensibility with Access 2007 - I hope this example is sufficient, it helped me a great lot.
My personal favorite is just using a graphical UI editor, such as the "Custom UI Editor Tool". With it you just click a button to insert an image and it works (as explained in this tutorial). Even better as the Custom UI Editor is the IDBE Ribbon Creatror - my personal tool of choice. A shareware version is available from the website.
I have a working example class object you can use that makes this a good deal less code.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/albertKallal/Ribbon/ribbon.htm
The above lets you use a very much like previous style code approach. So, to set a picture for a ribbon, you can go:
meRib("Button1").Picture = "HappyFace.png"
The same download has a working form in which some images in the ribbon change from choices made on the form.
I have a custom task pane I've made in VSTO for Outlook 2007, but it needs a fair amount of screen real estate to be functional. I'd like to just take over the place of the Reading Pane, as it won't really be needed when this addon is active. It's also a really great spot since this addon relies on drag-and-drop from mail folders to this task pane, and the closer I can get it to the folder pane, the better.
Any way to replace the Reading Pane, or at least toggle it's visibility?
I dont think there is a way in OOM to do this .. I you can change the size of you region though.
I have seen it done though with add-in-express tool http://www.add-in-express.com but that may be 2 much work for you to change to that model.
Take a look at the Replacement or Replace All Form Region options. Both of these options allow to replace the display of form region.
The Replacement form region let's you build a custom first page of your own.
The Replace All form region let's you build all form pages.
These are not simple options as you must provide all Outlook capabilities the user expects. This is why the Adjoining form region option is the popular choice.
You can read more here:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/dd492010(v=office.12).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/vstudio/bb206784.aspx