Microsoft Office 2000/Visual Basic Programmer's Guide

The Benefits of Office Programmability

There are currently more than 2.5 million Office developers creating custom solutions that use the applications or components in Microsoft^® Office. The term "Office developer" includes developers who work exclusively in one or more of the Office applications. It also includes developers working in any language that can access the objects exposed by Office applications. For more than ten years, Microsoft has been making improvements to the Office suite that enable developers to quickly and easily build and deploy custom desktop solutions. These improvements are the reason why Office applications continue to play such an important role in custom solution development:

• Users and businesses already use the Microsoft Office suite of applications.   Most users already have Office on their desktop. The most recent surveys indicate that more than 40 million people regularly use Office to get their work done. Building solutions based on the Office platform enables developers to target this large base of users. Also, even if you are not developing within the Office development environment, it is still a good idea to take advantage of the objects exposed by Office applications so that your custom applications can leverage existing, proven, and tested Office functionality.
  
  
• Office supports programmable objects and an integrated development environment.   Each Office application exposes its functionality through programmable objects, and each also supports the ability to integrate with other applications by using Automation (formerly OLE Automation). The applications all share the same programming language (Visual Basic^® for Applications) and integrated development environment (the Visual Basic Editor). Solutions created with VBA run in the same memory space as the host application and therefore execute faster. The programmable objects and powerful development tools in Office let developers build solutions that tightly integrate applications and seamlessly share data and information. In addition, distribution of Office-based solutions is simplified because VBA code and ActiveX^® controls are part of the application document or project.
  
  
• Faster development cycles mean more affordable solutions.   The use of a single language and development environment also makes solution development faster. What you learn while programming one application applies when working with another application. VBA code written for one application can often be reused in a solution that works with a different application. Developers' skills become more valuable because they can work across many applications. Reducing the number of development environments or languages that developers need to learn means that the time and cost of creating custom solutions is reduced. Reliance on existing components eliminates the need to develop or test large portions of the application. This lets developers quickly build robust solutions that previously might have been cost-prohibitive.
  
  
• Users become part of the solution.   Because solutions are created and run in an environment familiar to the user, support costs are kept to an absolute minimum. Building a solution based on Office technologies lets you define the solution in a context your users are already familiar with. This enables greater user participation in the solution-design process and can dramatically reduce training and support costs. It takes less time and effort to customize applications your users already own than to build new applications from scratch. The more familiar users are with the application, the easier it is going to be for them to understand and use your solution.