VBA Word 2007 (Word 12)

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I’ve read everything I can find about Word 2007 and VBA / Visual Studio. Does anyone have some real world experience with Word 2007 VBA? Is there a deficiency that warrants abandoning VBA in favor of VS? Nothing I’ve read convinces me there’s an advantage to VS. Is there any disadvantage to sticking with VBA?

Thanks,
Richard Barrett

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I can’t think of any reason not to use VBA for the things it can do, and reserve VB.Net/C#/etc. for very special occasions. Particularly if you need to support earlier versions of Word.

But I have not transitioned to the new document and template formats, so those might change the ease of deployment found in earlier versions, or security changes might make COM add-ins more necessary than they have been in the past.

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Thank you. Are you aware of any plans to phase out VBA? That notion seems unlikely; after all WordBasic is still understood!

I understand that C++ is essential to modifying the Ribbon. I suppose most “menu” items on the Ribbon could be disabled with Office Policies, if suppressing some items is required; is that correct? When would modifying the Ribbon be necessary/useful? Typical toolbars can be included in add-in templates, correct?

I agree that it’s not yet time to transition to the new document format. Have you heard any reports about how, for example, Office XP deals with .docx format documents with the conversion utility? It’s one thing to be the first firm to embrace the latest technology, but if clients and co-counsel can’t open your documents…..

Thanks.

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One small factual correction; C++ is not required for modifying the Ribbon. I don’t know the first thing about C++, but I have made a (very) modest start in working with RibbonX. Here are the resources that got me started:

Custom UI Editor Tool
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 1 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 2 of 3)
Customizing the 2007 Office Fluent Ribbon for Developers (Part 3 of 3)

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Thank you very much. I take it that RibbonX is a utility whose sole purpose is modification of the Office 12 Ribbon? I’ll have a look at the links you’ve provided.

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