Microsoft Office - Extensibility

Extensibility

A major feature of the Office suite is the ability for users and third party companies to write add-ins (plug-ins) that extend the capabilities of an application by adding custom commands and specialized features. The type of add-ins supported differ by Office versions:

• Office 97 onwards (standard Windows DLLs i.e. Word WLLs and Excel XLLs)
• Office 2000 onwards (COM add-ins)
• Office XP onwards (COM/OLE Automation add-ins)
• Office 2003 onwards (Managed code add-ins – VSTO solutions)