The information in this article applies to:
IMPORTANT: This article also applies to all previous versions of Office, including all individual programs that offer developer-related features. SUMMARY
Microsoft provides a variety of support offerings to meet the needs of customers developing solutions with Office. This article summarizes these support offerings and describes how Microsoft Support Professionals can assist you with problems or issues you may encounter. http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.aspThis article discusses the following topics: What Products are Eligible for Office Developer Support? MORE INFORMATIONWhat Products are Eligible for Office Developer Support?The following Office programs are eligible for Microsoft Office Developer Support: Microsoft Access, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office Developer.Other programs included with various editions of Office are not eligible since they do not contain object models, or are not designed to be customized or programmed as part of a solution. Microsoft Support Options for Office-related SolutionsThe following is a summary of the support Microsoft provides for solutions involving Office.Microsoft Office Support (Personal Support)Provides support for installing, deploying, configuring and using an Office program. Provides assistance with recording macros, accessing the developer-related features, and suggesting appropriate resources for you to get started.Microsoft Office Developer Support (Professional Support)Provides primary support for Office-related solutions within the guidelines specified in this article. While Microsoft Support Professionals can assist you with a wide variety of potential issues, they cannot provide ongoing training or perform a consulting role where they assist you in creating your solution.Advisory ServicesProvides consulting-level support that directly involves your solution, including writing code that can be used in your solution.NOTE: If you are not a developer and wish to have a solution created for you, Microsoft generally recommends that you contact an independent solution provider. A solution provider can provide ongoing assistance and support for a solution that is suited to your needs. For information about Solution Providers in your local area, contact the Microsoft Solution Provider Sales and Information line at (800)765-7768 in the US or (800)563-9048 in Canada. For information about support in other locations, contact a local Microsoft subsidiary. Suggested Resources to Check Before Calling SupportMicrosoft Knowledge Base Microsoft Support Web site Microsoft Office Developer Support Web site Microsoft Office Developer Web site Microsoft Developer Network Microsoft Press Public Internet newsgroups Office Developer SupportOffice Developer Support assists Office customers and solution developers in creating solutions involving an Office product. The following areas are some of the more typical scenarios that Office Developer support can help with.Typical Office Developer Support Scenarios
What Office Developer Support Does Support
NOTE: Support Professionals cannot provide full support if your question or problem is directly related to programming languages, environments, or components that are not included as part of Office. In those cases, you will receive an Office-based example of how to achieve what you are trying to do, and you can use this to apply to your solution. For further support you may need to contact the vendor, or support group of the programming environment you are working with. NOTE: If you are having a problem with a custom or third-party control on an Office-based form, you should try using the control on a Visual Basic form or other container. Oftentimes issues related to controls occur in various control containers and this indicates an issue with the control, not Office. Office Developer Support can only assist you if the problem is specific to using the control on an Office-based form. NOTE: These guidelines for HTML also apply to Cascading Style Sheets, as defined at http://www.w3c.org/style. What Office Developer Support Does Not Support
What Is an Office Developer Support Incident?An incident is defined as a single support issue and the commercially reasonable effort needed to resolve it. A single support issue is a problem that cannot be broken down into subordinate problems. If a problem consists of subordinate problems, each shall be considered a separate incident. Before Microsoft provides support for an incident, you and Microsoft's designated Support Professional must agree on what the problem is and the parameters for an acceptable solution. An incident may require multiple phone calls and off-line research to resolve it. A Microsoft product bug is not considered a fee-based incident.Problems should be broken down to the smallest scope possible. Because developers are most familiar with solutions they've created, you are in the best position to quickly narrow down the scope of a problem. This will typically reduce the total time needed to resolve issues. If a Support Professional needs to view the code you are using, the code should be as short as possible while still reproducing the problem you are having. The code should be able to be run independently of the solution you are creating. Office Developer Support Professionals will only provide example code that you can implement into your own solution. The Support Professional cannot help you design your solution or business rules, or provide code that can be directly used in your solution. Advisory ServicesAdvisory Services provides consulting-level services if you require specific development for a solution, or set of solution using the Office products.The minimum charge is $195 for the first hour of support. Prior to providing support, the Support Professional will review what it is you are trying to accomplish and estimate the time required to provide assistance. If the estimate is greater than one hour, a proposal contract will be faxed for your approval. If the initial estimate is not satisfactory, you will receive a refund of the initial $195. NOTE: Support Professionals can spend a maximum of 20 hours per solution. Microsoft Developer SupportDeveloper Support provides a wide variety of support for professional developers. In certain circumstances, Developer Support may provide primary support for some Office-related technologies, including:
Support Phone NumbersREFERENCES
For additional information about getting support for Microsoft Outlook solutions, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: Q198354 OL2000: Getting Support for Developing Outlook-Related Solutions Q185243 OL98: Getting Support for Developing Outlook-related Solutions Additional query words: OL2K OutSol OutSol2000 OFF2000 VBA VB MSE VBE
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