Yeah, it can get confusing, especially given the skip-level naming conventions, etc. Essentially, you’ll need:
- Full version (not Express) of Visual
Studio and the .NET version you’re targetting. - One of the VSTO run times (VSTO 2003, VSTO
2005, VSTO 2005 SE, VSTO 2008, VSTO
2010). For what your asking, VSTO
2005 SE is probably your best bet. - When distributing your app, you’ll
need more, like the PIAs and the .NET version you’ve targetted. For VSTO 2010, you don’t need the PIAs (just what you’re using will be packaged with your app automatically).
A couple of tips:
- Going from the VBE inside of Office
to VSTO should be a smooth-ish move
if you’ve used .NET to much extent. - The VSTO versions of the object
models for any given program (Excel,
PowerPoint, etc.) there may be a few
more ways of doing things that are
different/better than in the VBA
version of the object model. For
example, the Bookmark control for
Word in VSTO 2008 is not the same as
the one that is native to one
accessed via VBA. - Distributing your app can be a pain.
This is the very reason that that VSTO for Visual Studio 2010 does not require you
to include the full interop (PIA) files
with your package. - Targetting different versions of
Office with the same solution is not
officially supported for pre-VSTO 2010. There are ways
around this issue that some folks
have talked about, but you won’t get
much support from MSFT on it.
There are some sites that you should take a look at:
- Requirements VSTO solutions.
This is older, but is helpful to read
regarding the differences between the
2005 and 2005 SE versions. This
one is also decent in that it
includes the 2008 version. - Online resources for VSTO. This
is a good ‘jump’ site for learning
more about VSTO. - Getting Started (Visual Studio Tools
for Office). This, and it’s
sister link pages, are good jump
pages. Not that useful if you’re just
coming up to speed with VSTO, but
good for a little bit later. - Can you build one add-in for
multiple versions of Office?.
This is older, but discusses some of
the issues around building for
multiple versions of Office. - This site used to be better
organized, but I’ve always found that
videos are a very fast way to learn.
Most of these videos use one version
of VSTO.
Finally, to save the best for last, this is the book I read when I was just starting out and it was very helpful: VSTO for Mere Mortals(TM): A VBA Developer’s Guide to Microsoft Office Development Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office