CTP for Visual Studio Tools for Office

Today, at the Office Developer Conference (ODC), we announced the availability of the first CTP of the next version of Visual Studio Tools for Office.

This CTP introduces the VSTO support that will be made available for the breadth of Office 12, and includes project templates that enable developers to create application-level customizations through the use of VSTO add-ins for all Office applications. The CTPshowcasesVSTO runtime support for some ofthe latest Office technologies - the new Office UI Ribbon, the new Office Open XML file formats and a fully customizable application-level task pane that will empower developers to make the Office UI even more intuitive, actionable and optimized for specific business needs. Design-time support for these features and Outlook will follow in later CTPs.

The CTP will be available for download to the ODC participants, as well as over 5,000 Office beta 1 customers. This release represents a critical step toward enabling developers to start planning and prototyping their future solutions using the platform and tools that Office and the Developer Division have partnered together to build.

Namaste!