Microsoft Announces New Office Tools

Microsoft announced on Monday an upcoming set of developer tools, code-named "Visual Studio Tools for Office," which enable the creation of applications that run in Microsoft Word and Excel. Developers will be able to write code in Visual Basic .NET and Visual C# that executes behind documents and takes advantage of Office 11's XML support.

"Microsoft is focused on creating great opportunities for developers, and 'Visual Studio Tools for Office' enables developers to build solutions that provide an intuitive end-user experience," said Microsoft's vice president of the Developer Platform and Evangelism Division, Tom Button. "With .NET-connected software and the power of Office, developers can create a broad range of applications that span from devices to datacenter servers, and now to Office."

Visual Basic for Applications -- Microsoft's current Office programming language -- will still be supported, but it lacks the security and deployment features found in the .NET Framework. Visual Studio Tools for Office will additionally support no-touch deployment, which permits developers to change or upgrade applications without end-user interaction.

Visual Studio Tools for Office is slated to ship alongside Office 11 in mid-2003. Microsoft has not yet detailed specific pricing or packaging for the tools.