C# Extending Excel

[Joseph M. Newcomer]

I've written a couple C# apps, but this question is beyond anything I've done. A friend
called me and asked me if I could help, and while I can help with some of the C# stuff,
the infrastructure is where I have no experience.

Problem statement:

An extension to an Excel spreadsheet written in C#

The extension shall pop up a form and the user interacts with that form

Upon clicking an "Apply" button, or something along these lines, the extension will reach
out and manipulate the Excel spreadsheet in some appropriate fashion. There is currently
issues about whether at this point it changes the spreadsheet and closes the C# extension
window, or allows the user to continue. However, an "undo" is probably not required.

During the interactions, the extension will read values from the spreadsheet, present them
to the user and/or perform computations involving them.

I have some idea how I'd accomplish parts of this using ActiveX and ATL (I'm an MFC
expert) but the desire here is to use C# (more palatable than VB). I have no idea what
the C# equivalent of ActiveX looks like, or even how to start such a project. An
alternative is to write a WinForms app that can be launched from a spreadsheet and
effectively "take as a parameter" some reference that allows it access to the spreadsheet
that launched it.

Suggestions welcome.
joe
Joseph M. Newcomer [MVP]
email: (e-mail address removed)
Web: http://www.flounder.com
MVP Tips: http://www.flounder.com/mvp_tips.htm

 

[Nicholas Paldino [.NET/C# MVP]]

Joe,

Have you taken a look at the Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO)? It
should give you a pretty good foundation from which to start.

Hope this helps.