Microsoft Office Mac Add Ins
An add-in enhances or works with Office 2011 for Mac software in some way. Add-ins are sometimes called plug-ins or add-ons. Here are three examples of excellent commercial-quality add-ins that work with Mac Office:
Jan 17, 2020 Instructions for use: Note: If you have used the Office Sounds add-in on your computer with an earlier version of Microsoft Office (for example, if you installed the add-in for Microsoft Office XP and then upgraded to Office 2003), you will need to uninstall and then reinstall this add-in. To start using Office Sounds. In the File menu, click. Dec 17, 2016 Re: Issues with Modern Attachments (and Add-Ins) in Outlook for Mac One more update for today. I just opened up Outlook this evening, and without even have the crash caused by attaching the file all my insider fast features disappered, the modern attachment functionality as well as add-ins. Jul 05, 2016 Microsoft Office allows you to add more functionality through add-ins. Many modern add-ins also work with Office for iPad, Office Online, and Office for Mac–not just traditional desktop versions of Office for Windows. Microsoft Word has a dedicated Office Store (AppSource) which lists all add-ins available for all Office applications. You can also access the add-ins inside Word (and other Office apps), and Word for other platforms, like Word for iPad, Word for Mac, and Word Online. Jul 05, 2016 Microsoft Office allows you to add more functionality through add-ins. Many modern add-ins also work with Office for iPad, Office Online, and Office for Mac–not just traditional desktop versions of Office for Windows. Add-ins are available for Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Project,. Mar 18, 2020 The Readiness Toolkit for Office add-ins and VBA helps you identify compatibility issues with your Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macros and your installed add-ins. Use this tool to inspect VBA macro code and get readiness information for installed Office add-ins.
EndNote (www.endnote.com): A high-end bibliography product for Microsoft Word.
MathType (www.dessci.com/en/products/MathType_Mac): The full version of Equation Editor that’s included in Office. It lets you put mathematical symbols in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
TurningPoint (www.turningtechnologies.com): Use clickers to capture audience responses in real time and present the results on PowerPoint slides. This software is used in classrooms, quiz shows, marketing studies, and more.
Many add-ins made for Office for Windows can work on your Mac, so be sure to check their system requirements. Almost all add-ins can be made Mac-compatible with a little effort, but you may have to request the developer of a nonfunctioning add-in to make that extra effort.
You can put add-ins anywhere in Finder. If you want to make an add-in available to all Mac OS X user accounts on a computer, put them into Applications:Microsoft Office 14:Office:Add-Ins. The Documents folder is a good place to put add-ins to be used by a particular OS X user account.
A few commercially produced add-ins are installed using the Mac OS X installer program. Because making an installer is an art of its own and takes extra time and effort on the add-in developer’s part, you install most add-ins manually using the Add-Ins dialog in Office.
A Word add-in is a template file that contains VBA (Visual Basic Editor) code. You can add such a template to the Templates and Add-Ins dialog. In PowerPoint and Excel, an add-in has a special file extension and is not necessarily a template.
| Application | New Add-In File Extension | Old Add-In File Extension |
|---|---|---|
| Word | .dotm | .dot |
| Excel | .xlam | .xla |
| Excel macro enabled template | .xltm | .xlt |
| PowerPoint | .ppam | .ppa |
| PowerPoint macro enabled template | .potm | .pot |
To open the Add-Ins dialog, here’s what you do:
Word: Choose Tools→Templates and Add-Ins.
Excel and PowerPoint: Choose Tools→Add-Ins.
Word, Excel, and PowerPoint: Click the Developer tab on the Ribbon and then click Add-Ins→Add-Ins.
When you have the Add-Ins dialog open, you can do the following simple tasks to add, remove, load, and unload add-ins:
Load: Same as selecting the check box next to the add-in’s name. Loading also runs the add-in. (Available only in Excel and PowerPoint.)
Unload: Same as deselecting an add-in’s check box. Unloading disables the add-in. (Available only in Excel and PowerPoint.)
Add: Click to open the Choose a File browser, where you can browse to an add-in template in Finder and add your add-in to the list.
Remove: Click to remove the selected add-in from the list.
In Word, when you select an add-in’s check box or click the Add button, you load the template, thereby making the VBA routines that it has available globally within all open documents in Word. A loaded template is called a global template. Revisit the Templates and Add-Ins dialog to re-load your template(s). To disable an add-in, deselect its check box or click the Remove button.
Excel and PowerPoint add-ins are also loaded and unloaded using check boxes. When you close Excel or PowerPoint, add-ins that were loaded at closing reload themselves when you reopen the application.
-->You can use the Office Add-ins platform to build solutions that extend Office applications and interact with content in Office documents. With Office Add-ins, you can use familiar web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to extend and interact with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Project, and Outlook. Your solution can run in Office across multiple platforms, including Windows, Mac, iPad, and in a browser.
Office Add-ins can do almost anything a webpage can do inside a browser. Use the Office Add-ins platform to:
Add new functionality to Office clients - Bring external data into Office, automate Office documents, expose third-party functionality in Office clients, and more. For example, use Microsoft Graph API to connect to data that drives productivity.
Create new rich, interactive objects that can be embedded in Office documents - Embed maps, charts, and interactive visualizations that users can add to their own Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint presentations.
How are Office Add-ins different from COM and VSTO add-ins?
COM or VSTO add-ins are earlier Office integration solutions that run only on Office on Windows. Unlike COM add-ins, Office Add-ins don't involve code that runs on the user's device or in the Office client. For an Office Add-in, the host application, for example Excel, reads the add-in manifest and hooks up the add-in’s custom ribbon buttons and menu commands in the UI. When needed, it loads the add-in's JavaScript and HTML code, which executes in the context of a browser in a sandbox.
Office Add-ins provide the following advantages over add-ins built using VBA, COM, or VSTO:
Cross-platform support. Office Add-ins run in Office on the web, Windows, Mac, and iPad.
Centralized deployment and distribution. Admins can deploy Office Add-ins centrally across an organization.
Easy access via AppSource. You can make your solution available to a broad audience by submitting it to AppSource.
Based on standard web technology. You can use any library you like to build Office Add-ins.
Components of an Office Add-in
An Office Add-in includes two basic components: an XML manifest file, and your own web application. The manifest defines various settings, including how your add-in integrates with Office clients. Your web application needs to be hosted on a web server, or web hosting service, such as Microsoft Azure.
Manifest
The manifest is an XML file that specifies settings and capabilities of the add-in, such as:
The add-in's display name, description, ID, version, and default locale.
How the add-in integrates with Office.
The permission level and data access requirements for the add-in.
Web app
The most basic Office Add-in consists of a static HTML page that is displayed inside an Office application, but that doesn't interact with either the Office document or any other Internet resource. However, to create an experience that interacts with Office documents or allows the user to interact with online resources from an Office host application, you can use any technologies, both client and server side, that your hosting provider supports (such as ASP.NET, PHP, or Node.js). To interact with Office clients and documents, you use the Office.js JavaScript APIs.
Figure 2. Components of a Hello World Office Add-in
Extending and interacting with Office clients
Office Add-ins can do the following within an Office host application:
Extend functionality (any Office application)
Create new objects (Excel or PowerPoint)
Extend Office functionality
You can add new functionality to Office applications via the following:
Custom ribbon buttons and menu commands (collectively called “add-in commands”)
Insertable task panes
Custom UI and task panes are specified in the add-in manifest.
Custom buttons and menu commands
You can add custom ribbon buttons and menu items to the ribbon in Office on the web and Windows. This makes it easy for users to access your add-in directly from their Office application. Command buttons can launch different actions such as showing a task pane with custom HTML or executing a JavaScript function.
Figure 3. Add-in commands in the ribbon
Task panes
You can use task panes in addition to add-in commands to enable users to interact with your solution. Clients that do not support add-in commands (Office 2013 and Office on iPad) run your add-in as a task pane. Users launch task pane add-ins via the My Add-ins button on the Insert tab.
Figure 4. Task pane
Extend Outlook functionality
Outlook add-ins can extend the Office ribbon and also display contextually next to an Outlook item when you're viewing or composing it. They can work with an email message, meeting request, meeting response, meeting cancellation, or appointment when a user is viewing a received item or replying or creating a new item.
Outlook add-ins can access contextual information from the item, such as an address or tracking ID, and then use that data to access additional information on the server and from web services to create compelling user experiences. In most cases, an Outlook add-in runs without modification in the Outlook host application to provide a seamless experience on the desktop, web, and tablet and mobile devices.
For an overview of Outlook add-ins, see Outlook add-ins overview.
Create new objects in Office documents
You can embed web-based objects called content add-ins within Excel and PowerPoint documents. With content add-ins, you can integrate rich, web-based data visualizations, media (such as a YouTube video player or a picture gallery), and other external content.
Using styles in microsoft word. Figure 5. Content add-in
Office JavaScript APIs
The Office JavaScript APIs contain objects and members for building add-ins and interacting with Office content and web services. There is a common object model that is shared by Excel, Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, OneNote and Project. There are also more extensive host-specific object models for Excel and Word. These APIs provide access to well-known objects such as paragraphs and workbooks, which makes it easier to create an add-in for a specific host.
Next steps
For a more detailed introduction to developing Office Add-ins, see Building Office Add-ins.