Office 2003: Does installing VSTO disable New Project and Open Project in Office VBA File menu?

[Howard Kaikow]

Both Word 2000 and Word 2003 have New Project and Open Project items in the
File menu in the VBA IDE.
I cannot find such items in Word 2003 or Excel 2003.

How can I open old .vba files in Office 2003?
Did VSTO disable those items?
If so, it had no business doing so?

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I meant to type

Both Word 2000 and Word 2002 have New Project and Open Project items in the
File menu in the VBA IDE.

 

[Stephen Bullen]

Hi Howard,

How can I open old .vba files in Office 2003?
Did VSTO disable those items?
If so, it had no business doing so?

Is that a Office 2003-only install, or do you have Office 2003
installed side-by-side with a previous version. On my PC, I have
Office 2000, 2002 and 2003 installed side-by-side and see the New and
Open Project menus in the Office 2003 VBA IDE.

Given that the IDE hasn't changed in Office 2003, I'd imagine (though I
haven't tested) that installing the Office 2002 Developer Tools would
get them back.

Regards

Stephen Bullen
Microsoft MVP - Excel
www.BMSLtd.ie

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Do you have VSTO in that same partition?

It would not surprise me if VSTO disabled such options, of course, that
would be foolish, but that's not stopped MSFT before.

I always install each version of Office in a separate boot partition. I
won't install components from different versions of Office in the same boot
partition.

 

[Chris Kunicki]

I don't think VSTO even touchs the VBA editor. This is a stretch (of my
memory) but I thought the File | New Project was only avaiable with Office
XP & Office 2000 developer. If memory serves (which It probably doesnt) this
is to allow you to create COM DLLs with VBA.

So do you have Office Developer installed?

As a side note, I do not and I don't have the New Project. Though I never
used this anyhow, I always preferred VB6 back in my COM days.

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I can believe that Office 2003 does not have New/Open Project IF VSTO Is
installed.
Could be that simplified the implementation of VSTO.

I only noticed this because I was cleaning up my Word templates directories
and found some very old .vba files.

Since Office 2003 is still VBA based, there's no excuse for VSTO disabling
those menu items.

MSFT needs to create a KB article explaining this situation.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Howard,

I have Office installations of various versions on systems with no Office
Developer tools installed. Not ONE of them has New/Open Project.

As Stephen indicates, these entries may be part of the Office DEVELOPER, and
aren't native to the Office VBA IDE. So I, too, don't think anything has
changed in Office, itself. You probably just haven't installed the "Addin"
that provided the interface.

I can believe that Office 2003 does not have New/Open Project IF VSTO Is
installed.
Could be that simplified the implementation of VSTO.

I only noticed this because I was cleaning up my Word templates directories
and found some very old .vba files.

Since Office 2003 is still VBA based, there's no excuse for VSTO disabling
those menu items.

MSFT needs to create a KB article explaining this situation.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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[Howard Kaikow]

That would mean that VSTO intentionally did not include a provision for
New/Open projects.

As long as Office supports VBA, the "developer tools" for each version of
Office must include the New/Open Project items in the File menu.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Howard,

That would mean that VSTO intentionally did not include a provision for
New/Open projects.

Since VSTO is totally .NET, I don't see any reason why it should do this.
You can't open/maintain a *.vba file in the .NET IDE.

And I should think that:
1. Any developer should still have the old Developer Tools
2. The project should have been exported to *.bas for "safe keeping"
3. And then it can be worked on in VB6 and made into a proper COM DLL
Addin, or "converted" to .NET

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30 2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

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reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Howard Kaikow]

Hi Howard,
Since VSTO is totally .NET, I don't see any reason why it should do this.
You can't open/maintain a *.vba file in the .NET IDE.

Yes, but as long as VBA is supported, MSFT should have included provision
for creating/opening VBA projects.
VSTO Is irrelevant for this. MSFT should release developer tools for Office
2003 VBA that are officially supported,

And I should think that:
1. Any developer should still have the old Developer Tools

There are none for Office 2003.

2. The project should have been exported to *.bas for "safe keeping"

I can open the projects in earlier versions of Office.

3. And then it can be worked on in VB6 and made into a proper COM DLL
Addin, or "converted" to .NET

The idea of the developer tools was to not require that one also have VB 6,
which I do have.

 

[Cindy M -WordMVP-]

Hi Howard,

MSFT should release developer tools for Office
2003 VBA that are officially supported,

I wouldn't argue with that

There are none for Office 2003.

I said the **old** tools. If you wrote them, then you should have
the tools and the version of Office it was written for. Nothing to
stop you from installing them again.

Cindy Meister
INTER-Solutions, Switzerland
http://homepage.swissonline.ch/cindymeister (last update Sep 30
2003)
http://www.word.mvps.org

This reply is posted in the Newsgroup; please post any follow
question or reply in the newsgroup and not by e-mail

 

[Howard Kaikow]

I said the **old** tools. If you wrote them, then you should have
the tools and the version of Office it was written for. Nothing to
stop you from installing them again.

They are installed, but with Office 2000 and Office 20002 in separate boot
partitions.
I won't install such pre-Office 2003 critters with Office 2003.

 

[Charles Maxson]

Howard,

I kinda hear where you are going on this, but on the other hand, I would
rather MS just focus on delivering innovation and not supporting legacy.
Change will break things sometimes.

It's kind of like demanding that your DVD manufacturer puts a VHS player
inside their DVD units just because they still sell/rent video cassettes....
also like when you bought a new PC and the 3.5" Floppy didn't cost extra?
It's easier to let go...

 

[Howard Kaikow]

The analogy does not work.

A .vba file contains a project just as valid as a project in a .dot file.
In its infinite wisdom, MSFT has jus decided to package the tools for
handling .vba files in "developer editions, but provided none for Word
2003. There's just no excuse.

There's no point in discussing this further, it is clear what MSFT has done.
Perhaps they will surprise us with a fix, but I doubt it.

 

[Stephen Bullen]

Hi Howard,

They are installed, but with Office 2000 and Office 20002 in separate boot
partitions.
I won't install such pre-Office 2003 critters with Office 2003.

FWIW, the VBE hasn't changed at all since in Office 2003, so as the Office
2002 developer tools are just extras for the VBE, they will continue to work
fine and won't harm the Office 2003 setup.

On my machine, I have Office 2000, 2002, 2003 (and all their respective
developer editions) and VSTO all installed on the same partition, without
any issues.

Regards

Stephen Bullen
Microsoft MVP - Excel
www.BMSLtd.ie