Professional Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office satisfies the need to write enterprise software based on Office by delivering practical solutions for those seeking to port existing functionality to VSTO. The book focuses on code and implementation, not theory, with code examples presented in both VB and C#.

The book is especially written for enterprise developers - VBA or COM Interop savvy - who need to leverage the power and productivity of VSTO today. .NET developers seeking to explore VSTO as a potential solution will also find ample material that suits their needs.

This book covers VSTO 2005 in detail. The approach focuses on the major components that form the suite with the exception that InfoPath is not covered. All other components benefit from an exploration of the key objects that are most likely to be used in common programming scenarios. This book is organized into chapters that present the building blocks of VSTO first. Microsoft Excel and its Range objects form the cornerstone of range manipulation across the VSTO suite. For that reason, the first few chapters explain these basic concepts. Subsequent chapters use these building blocks as a starting point so it is important to be familiar with these concepts before skipping to the back of the book.

Once you gain a complete understanding of the Excel Range object in Chapters 2 and 3, you can apply that knowledge to the remaining chapters. In fact, Microsoft Word, Charts and Pivot Table manipulation are all based on the Excel Range object. (VSTO contains a potent charting engine second to none. And this book explores every facet of charting.) The obvious benefit of this clever architecture is that it significantly reduces the learning curve for those who wish to adopt this relatively new technology. And this book is designed to show you how to exploit this architecture.