Your guide to VSTO 2.0 (and 3.0) at PDC

If you are lucky enough to be attending PDC, there are going to be lots of VSTO goodies for you to check out. There will be a lot of information on VSTO 2.0 including an entire day preconference on VSTO 2.0 (PRE10). In addition, PDC is the time to announce and show new products, so there will be an early build of VSTO 3.0 that works against Office 12. VSTO 3.0 will be described and demoed in session OFF417. You will see this early build of VSTO 3.0 in many of the talks and in addition, you can get your hands on it so to speak in the VSTO 3.0 hands on lab that will be available throughout the conference.

Be sure not to miss these events:

  • Monday: PRE10: VSTO--this is an all day preconference session on VSTO 2.0 at which I will present along with Andrew Whitechapel and Misha Shneerson.
  • Tuesday-Friday: Check out the VSTO Product Pavillion.
  • Tuesday-Friday: You can play with VSTO 3.0 alpha bits in the VSTO 3.0 hands on labs available throughout the conference!
  • Tuesday-Friday: There will be people from the VSTO team available to answer your VSTO questions in both the Office and the Tools track lounges.
  • Thursday: OFF417 - Visual Studio Tools for Office 'v3': Creating Office Application Customizations. This session will preview version 3.0 of VSTO.
  • Thursday Night: Ask the experts sessions on VSTO--ask any of your 2.0 or 3.0 questions.

There are a number of sessions in the Office and SharePoint track with VSTO 3.0 information and demos. These include:

  • Tuesday: OFF302 - ''Office 12'': Developing with the Programmable Customization Model for the "Office 12" User Experience (Part 2). VSTO 3.0 will support the new Office 12 User Experience as described in this session.
  • Tuesday: OFF304--Assembling, Repurposing and Manipulating Document Content Using the New Office File Format. This is a cool session on the new Office file formats and there will be some information on how VSTO 3.0 supports them. 
  • Thursday: OFF312 - "Outlook 12": Developing Solutions Using the Consolidated Outlook Object Model. Some info will be in this session on VSTO 3.0 features for Outlook 12.
  • Thursday: OFF316 - Integrating Business Data into Documents using XML-based Data/View Separation and Programmability. This will show cover VSTO 3.0 and new Word 12 features.
  • Thursday: OFF319 - ''InfoPath 12'': Developing Forms for the Smart Client and the Browser. See what InfoPath development will look like in VSTO 3.0 and Office 12.
  • Friday: OFF322 Building a Solution Using a Spreadsheet in Server-Based Scenarios. VSTO 3.0 will support a number of interesting Excel Server-Based Scenarios.

Also, check out these sessions on future technologies for application customization:

  • Wednesday: TLN205--Future Directions: Building Customizable Applications in the .NET World. Information on new stuff from the VSTO team.
  • Wednesday: FUN309 - CLR: Designing Managed Add-Ins for Reliability, Security, and Versioning. How ISVs can create managed add-in hosting systems for version independent managed add-ins.