Today, I want to show you a simple user defined function (UDF) for a Delphi XLL that evaluates a function parameter passed in as an Excel Range. This example was requested by a visitor of my glade.
Surprisingly, many visitors are interested in writing XLL add-ins for Excel. Today, I want to describe a Delphi sample add-in which adds a custom menu to the menu bar. This sample applies to Excel 11 and before. The custom menu will appear in the Add-Ins tab of new releases of Excel. Continue reading
Once prepared, we want to deploy our Excel Add-Ins to users. Typically, an Add-In Manager is used to install Microsoft Office Add-Ins. There’s nothing but some Registry entries we can write ourselves. A simple Delphi console application can be used to do this and deployment can be done with a batch file which runs from login script, for example. Continue reading
This is the last part in writing Delphi Excel COM Add-Ins. We just need to be a bit more customized with individual icons passed as IPictureDisp to the UI. And we need to integrate our Delphi COM Add-In to Excel’s Ribbon by implementing the IRibbonExtensibility interface. Continue reading
The second project should offer some more interaction to the user. Delphi provides an ExcelXP and OfficeXP unit but a TCommandBarButton cannot be found. We will add this as a TOleServer descendant. The sample COM Add-In creates a custom command bar and some buttons. It handles the Click event of the buttons. Continue reading
COM Add-Ins have become more important when Microsoft introduced the Office Fluent User Interface. But you can use COM Add-Ins to extend functionality starting with Microsoft Office 2000 and with access to the object model of its host application. They are also used to provide add-in functionality to Visual Studio. Continue reading
Automation Add-ins can be in-process or out-of-process COM servers and implementation of IDTExtensibility2 is optional. This is what you may find on Microsoft’s Website if you’re searching information about Automation Add-Ins. It implies that every COM server can be used as an Excel Automation Add-In due to the fact that implementation of the mentioned interface is optional. Continue reading
A DLL just needs to provide the xlAutoOpen function to become a valid XLL Add-In. It’s quite easy to say ‘Hello Excel!’ with Delphi that way. The xlAuto family is a set of interface functions Excel uses for XLL interaction. Continue reading
Excel enables a DLL to call back into Excel. Your Delphi Add-In will need to use this feature provided with the Excel4v and Excel12v callback functions. We import the Excel4v function and implement the Excel12v function. Hence we’ve got the objects to write Delphi XLL Add-Ins. Continue reading
You need some basic objects to create Excel XLL Add-Ins with Delphi. At first, we need a structure to exchange data with Excel. Therefore, Microsoft describes the XLOPER and XLOPER12 structures inside the Excel Software Development Kit (SDK). Continue reading