VSTO Addin - Add dockable window to VBE Editor

Question

I'm making a VSTO Addin for PowerPoint in C#, which adds a better project explorer. I've been making it in a userform, however it would be better if the window would be part of the VBE editor (aka dockable). I found the CreateToolWindow function in Application.VBE.Windows.CreateToolWindow. However, I don't know how to use this function, or if it even does what I'm trying to do. The docs say very little about it and I couldn't find any examples on the internet. How do I get the Addin instance? What is ProgId? What is a UserDocument?

This is my base code:

namespace PowerPointAddIn1
{
    public partial class ThisAddIn
    {
        public static PowerPoint.Application App;

        private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            Application.VBE.Windows.CreateToolWindow(/*...*/);
        }

        private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
        }

        #region VSTO generated code
        private void InternalStartup()
        {
            this.Startup += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Startup);
            this.Shutdown += new System.EventHandler(ThisAddIn_Shutdown);
        }
        #endregion
    }
}

Answer 1

VSTO add-ins are not designed for customizing the VBA editor. It seems you need to develop a COM add-in for the Visual Basic for Applications editor, not PowerPoint. To get that done you need to implement the IDTExtensibility2 interface. Typically your implementation will have Guid("XXXXXXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX-XXXXXXXXXXXX") and ProgId("YourAddins.UserControlHost") attributes for the class (which implements the COM add-ins interface).

How do I get the Addin instance?

ThisAddin is your add-in instance (use this in C#). Typically when you implement the IDTExtensibility2 interface the instance is passed as a parameter to the Connect method.

What is ProgId?

This is a name of your add-in. Typically you can find it in the windows registry or in the ProgID attribute specified for the add-in class.

What is a UserDocument?

The document that should be displayed in the editor.

You may find the sample code in the Create a toolwindow for the VBA editor with .NET(C#). article.

Answer 2

You can check this web archive (written by Carlos Quintero, the main MzTool contributor) : https://web.archive.org/web/20211024050815/https://www.mztools.com/articles/2012/MZ2012017.aspx

You'll find in that webpage many other usefull links to create vbe addins !