Is it possible to add a custom template "tab" (for lack of a better term) to the start screen in Word 2013? In other words, is it possible to add another section in addition to "Featured" and "Personal?" in the interface below?
I'm interested in the feasibility of adding a, say, "Legal" tab, to surface templates developed specifically for an organization's legal department. I'm aware that a custom template directory can be pushed down via domain policy (read: registry edit) such that custom templates appear under the "Personal" tab, but that's not really ideal given the administrative overhead. Not to mention that the templates aren't "personal" at all.
Ideally, I'd like to accomplish this via an Office app. Looking at the JavaScript API for Office documentation, however, it doesn't seem immediately possible.
This post (via this SO question) describes the registry change and seems to suggest that customizing the "backstage" isn't possible.
Is such a customization possible? If so, via what means of customization? Using an Office add-in (managed), an Office app, some other registry modification...?
(And yes, I'm aware that "add-in" is the new term; for the sake of clarity I use the term "add-in" in the question to refer to the managed add-in project template available in Visual Studio 2013 as opposed to the Office app or Cloud app for Office templates)
You won't be able to add a custom group to the available template using the JavaScript-based Office Add-ins (This technology is rather limited in functionality - it's main advantage is that it can run cross-platform).
The approach to add custom templates is to create a Spotlight provider. It is described in detail here:
Deploy custom templates in Office 2010
The article talks about Office 2010, but it works also in Office 2013. You only would need to change the version number in the Registry Keys from 14.0 to 15.0.
Yes, I believe implementing a Backstage tab is possible by creating a Word 2013 VSTO add-in using Visual Studio 2013. (This is also possible by embedding Ribbon XML into a VBA add-in template that loads on start up as well.)
I will preface the course of action I outline below by saying that I think it would be easier and possibly provide a better UI experience to create a custom Legal ribbon tab with a gallery control populated by images of the templates. (A Custom Task Pane might also provide a good solution, depending on the use cases.)
Preparing Word
The screen capture you provided is the initial Backstage view that appears when Word 2013 is launched. (This view only appears at launch and future access to templates using this Word instance will need to be via the Backstage New tab.) As this Backstage "splash screen" cannot, to my knowledge, be modified, the first step is to disable it by going to File|Options|General|Startup Options and uncheck Show the Start screen when this application starts. This will cause Word to launch to a blank document and remove this splash screen permanently. And this setting can be pushed down to users PCs via group policy. (If you disabled this setting and then went the custom Ribbon tab route, you could have your templates displayed visually in the ribbon upon launch.)
The Approach
With the Backstage "splash screen" disabled, I suggest hiding the built-in Backstage New tab and then replacing it with a custom New tab that features your legal templates.
The Word Backstage view is altered via Ribbon XML code. This code is either embedded in a VBA template add-in or delivered via a VSTO add-in built in Visual Studio with C#, F#, or VB.NET. To hide the built-in New tab, the XML would contain this code:
<tab idMso="TabOfficeStart" visible="false"/>
You can find all the control identifiers here:
Office 2013 Fluent User Interface Control Identifiers
The Steps
Create the add-in project in Visual Studio (or the template in VBA)
Write the Ribbon XML which will remove the New tab and insert your custom tab with legal templates
Customizing the Office 2010 Backstage View for Developers (Applies to Office 2013 As Well)
Create Custom Tabs in the Office 2010 Backstage View (Applies to Office 2013 As Well)
Deploy the add-in
This should get you started, but you may need to seek out other articles on add-in creation and Backstage customizations.
Related
I want to mimic the word ribbon. But i can't find any resource that goes in depth on this subject matter or a template like the office developer tool template for MFC.
The Office 2016 ribbon is not exactly available, but the Ribbon Framework is. Here is one of my old articles about it.
I use
Visual Studio 2015
Can I change the "redmine" interface elements with "visual studio" or another system?
For example, for the "task creation form" I want to add "buttons" or additional "tab bar".
Can this be done by analogy with working with "Windows Form"?
I mean drag the button onto the form and add the code for the button.
PS
I start to study programming, I apologize if the question is inaccurate
To change Redmine UI, and add/remove new features, you would have to learn html/css, ruby, and Ruby on Rails framework.
Once you learn them, best way to modify Redmine is by making plugin which adds functionality you want, and preferably share that plugin with others via github and redmine's plugin registry listed here: www.redmine.org/plugins
In that sense, you can use Visual Studio, as code editor, or any other text editor, as long as they have nice syntax coloring, code indenting, and preferably function and variable name completion...
I have to create something similar to Report Builder and SSRS or Open RPT but for a MFC application.
The idea is to be able to create and edit a template for reports that have to be printed afterwards. I am not confined to using MFC (I am allowed to use C#, QT, etc..), but whatever I use, it has to integrate in a MFC document application and be able to do drag and drop/resize and edit of containers (for example tables, image containers, etc).
There are some options that I considered (but they all seem overkill):
XPS, it allows for easy printing but it does not allow for editing/drag and drop.
DirectDraw, but this seems like a lot of work and I do not know if/how the printing functionality can be implemented.
QGraphicsView from QT, but I am afraid of the complications that can arise because of the integration part.
Are there any components that I can use? It does not have to be free (but that would be nice), but I should be able to integrate it in my application without installing additional software on the clients machine.
Note: I use MFC9 with Visual Studio 2010. And the target PCs have Windows 7 and Windows 8 installed.
All major components vendors have this kind of control in a way or another, my personal choice is DevExpress, but you can also look at Telerik, Syncfusion and others, just be sure that the Report Designer component can be redistributed to your end users.
The new VS 11 features a grey-style user interface that is cool. Is it possible for me apply this to my MFC App? Thanks!
The last "update" for MFC controls and their appearance was the MFC Feature Pack, as described here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb982354.aspx
Unfortunately, it does not include the VS 2011 style, but maybe you find something else which would be interesting for your application (for example ribbons etc).
They did not include pictures of their controls, you can only check them in their sample application, which you can download here
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb983962.aspx
or via Google Image Search
http://www.google.com/search?q=mfc+feature+pack
I'm not familiar with Filnet P8.
My assumptions from reading some online docs is that it has a central web-based user interface called Workplace which is implemented on the Java web stack and communicates with the core parts of Filenet through Java APIs.
Also it seems you can extend the Workplace trough JSR 186 compliant portlets. - from what I've read Filnet P8 Workplace is not a portal itself and cannot host portlets, but provides some of the functionality as portlets which can be used with 3rd party portals.
Filenet also seems to have a lot of extensibility points which don't require coding, but I'm considering a highly-customized application with custom dynamic grids and forms.
Is it possible to extend the Workplace using portlets and/or plain JSP/Servlet approach with custom GUI for a custom workflow? (Probably the "Web Application Toolkit" is the tool)
The GUI can contain grids with filtering and column selection, forms (not paper once) with dynamically disabling/enabling fields, custom search forms, dynamic context and dropdown menus.
The GUI should be able to integrate with the Content and Process engines of course.
A link to an existing Filenet P8 based solution which proves such a custom Workplace GUI extension possible would be great.
Thanks!
This is possible. First of all Workplace comes with FULL source code. Look in the AESource directory (usually in c:\Program Files\FileNet\AE if you are running it on Windows). What you need to decide first of all is where you want to plug in (for example do you want to create a new Wokrplace page altogether like the Browse and Search pages or do you want to splice it in as a new action like Checkout, Get-Info etc).
Once you figure that out, I can provide more specific information of where you want to look to add your new code. Once you can display an entry point to your own feature in Workplace, then you can use whatever you want as far as controls etc. You can use JSF grids or just classic JSP stuff or even JQuery controls (provided you link the right libs etc).
Another thing to keep in mind is that you are going to need to get familiar with the Web Application Toolkit (WAT) so that you can make sure you are getting the right state information from Workplace (like the user token of who is logged in, maybe what doc id the user clicked on, what folder they were in when they entered your UI).
Anyways, here is some info to get you started. If you provide more info about where you want to splice your UI in, I can provide some guidance as what you need to change etc.