Access.2007.VBA.Bibl..

I

n Chapter 13, I described creating a VB 6 COM add-in to add extra

functionality to Access. VB 6 (though still supported by Microsoft) is not

the latest version of Visual Basic; if you want to use the latest version,

that is VB 2005, included in Visual Studio 2005, available in several editions.

There are significant differences between these versions of VB and some com-

patibility problems with Office 2007, but you can create Visual Studio 2005

add-ins that work with Access, though at present the job is much harder than

it should be, and their functionality is limited, because the Visual Studio Tools

for Office add-in does not yet include an Access add-in template.

This chapter describes creating a simple Visual Studio Shared add-in for

Access that will run in both Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Preparing to Write a Visual Studio Add-in ........................................................................

Before you start writing a Visual Studio add-in, there are several preliminary

steps you need to take. The first is to check that.NET support is enabled for

Office, to support the Access interoperability component needed to work

with Access.

Adding .NET Support to Office ........................................................................................

Since your installation of Office 2007 may not have .NET support enabled,

you need to check that this feature has been selected; it is required in order

to create Shared add-ins. To check whether.NET support is enabled, you

IN THIS CHAPTER

Customizing the Ribbon with a

Visual Studio 2005 Shared add-in

A comparison of Access and

Visual Studio add-ins

Customizing the Access

Ribbon with a Visual Studio

2005 Shared Add-in