I need to write an addin to Excel that:
1. creates a new menu (or ribbon, I'm not sure which)
2. From that menu, calls custom dialog boxes
3. From those dialog boxes, run code that can read and write to Excel ranges. Also I need the code to list in a dialog box what ranges are available in a selected worksheet, as well as list the worksheets etc. that are open. In general I also need do some basic interactions with Excel, including writing formulas and turning on and off calculation, if need be.
I used to be a writer of XLLs, but I can't get the dot net compiler to make those work any more with Excel 2010. Rather than pursue the XLL path, I thought maybe I could go to VBA, and write all my code there, and for the parts that require a lot of number crunching, I would call C dlls.
Looking all this up in the last few days, I first saw mentions of VSTO on the MSDN site. It looks like that might be a great solution, but I'm not totally sure. I have Visual Studio C# 20008 express on Windows XP, and I suppose I could invest in the regular edition if need be, though the 2010 edition install program won't work on XP. Can I accomplish everything I want to do in Visual Studio? Will it be faster (especially the number-crunching parts) than if I did it with VBA? Are there any downsides to developing this way (such as debugging, or not having Excel open at the same time, etc.)?
Thanks,
Gideon
FN13 (number for searching forums)
