The first part of this book introduces the Office object models and the Office primary interop assemblies (PIAs). You also learn how to use Visual Studio to build automation executables, add-ins, and code behind the document using features of Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office (VSTO).
Chapter 1, "An Introduction to Office Programming," introduces the Office object models and examines their basic structure. The chapter describes how to work with objects, collections, and enumerationsthe basic types found in all Office object models. You also learn how to use properties, methods, and events exposed by objects and collections in the Office object models. Chapter 1 also introduces the PIAs, which expose the Office object models to .NET code, and describes how to use and reference Office PIAs in a VSTO project.
Chapter 2, "Introduction to Office Solutions," covers the main ways Office applications are customized and extended. The chapter describes the various kinds of Office solutions you can create using VSTO.
The Other Parts of This Book
Part II: Office Programming in .NET
Part II covers the Office object models in more depth. Chapters 3 through 5 cover Excel, Chapters 6 through 8 cover Word, Chapters 9 through 11 cover Outlook, and Chapter 12 covers InfoPath. There is also some discussion in these chapters about application-specific features and issues. Chapter 3, for example, talks about how to build custom formulas in .NET for Excel. Chapter 5 discusses the Excel-specific "locale" issue in some detail. You can select which chapters of Part II to read. If you are interested only in Excel development, you can read Chapters 3 through 5 and then skip to Part III of this book.
Part III: Office Programming in VSTO
Part III, comprised of Chapters 13 through 20, describes the features that Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office brings to Office development. Part III describes all the features of VSTO, including using Windows Forms controls in Excel and Word documents, using data binding against Office objects, building Smart Tags, and adding Windows Forms controls to Office's task pane.
Part IV: Advanced Office Programming
Finally, Part IV covers advanced programming topics. Chapters 21 and 22 talk about working with XML in Excel and Word with VSTO. Chapter 23 covers how to build managed COM add-ins for Word and Excel. Chapter 24 describes how to develop Outlook add-ins in VSTO.
