The WordMeister

My previous post on getting started with Script Lab and the Office JS APIs for Word looked at some similarities between the COM and Word JS API object models, based on the Script Lab Basic API call sample. This time, I’ll highlight the core part of the sample code that differs from working with COM/VBA. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re curious about the Office JS API application object models and want to get acquainted you can do so without any investment other than time. All you need is a Microsoft account and Office 365 / Office 2016 installed on your machine (Windows or Mac) or access to Office Online. Then you can install Script Lab. Read the rest of this entry »

Since last I wrote about “Web Add-ins” and the Office JavaScript API a lot has happened. Office 2016 with the updated APIs has been released and the APIs are constantly being up-dated. Those with a subscription will receive the updates more regularly than anyone who has installed Office from an msi. Web add-ins for Office 2016 (and later) run not only on the Windows desktop, like VBA, VSTO and other solutions, they also run on Mac, iPad, mobile devices and the on-line versions of the Office applications. Read the rest of this entry »

I hope you’ve had a chance to think about the code in the previous post for reading the value of a document property. This post will consider the problem of looping when async calls are involved, using that as the basis for the discussion. Read the rest of this entry »

Besides writing to a specified place in a document, the other major thing an “App for Word” can do is communicate with Custom XML Parts. Mainly, I suppose the reason this was included in the original APIs is because Word can link a content control to a node in a Custom XML Part. Changing the content of either the content control or the node will mirror that change at the other end of the link. This capability is of interest for “data-mining” documents since it’s a fairly simple task to read a Custom XML Part from a closed Word document by leveraging the Office Open XML. Read the rest of this entry »

Here are a some tips for improving your “experience” in the Visual Studio IDE when testing the Office APIs. Read the rest of this entry »

In the last four installments, the basics of creating a Web Add-in and reading/inserting information was introduced, using two different data formats: matrix and plain text. When working with Word, especially, formatting can be just as important as text content. For this reason, Word supports more and complexer content types than the other Office applications. This post focuses on using these coercion types in a Web Add-in. Read the rest of this entry »