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Building and Debugging Office Solutions

In general, building and debugging Visual Studio Tools for Office projects is the same as building and debugging other types of projects in Visual Studio, such as Windows Forms. The topics in this section explain the differences that do exist.

Office Solution Build Process Overview

Describes build processes that are specific to Visual Studio Tools for Office projects, including project output, how referenced assemblies work, and security during the build process.

How to: Build Office Solutions

Describes how to build your Office solution in Visual Studio and discusses how the assembly location is updated after building.

Debugging in Document-Level Projects

Presents issues involved in debugging Microsoft Office Word and Microsoft Office Excel projects.

Debugging in Application-Level Projects

Presents issues involved in debugging Application-level projects.

How to: Handle Errors in Office Projects

Explains how the interaction of managed and unmanaged code affects error handling in document-level and application-level projects.


Describes how to re-enable an add-in that has been hard or soft disabled.

Building, Debugging, and Testing

Provides links to topics that explain how to control build configurations, identify and resolve errors efficiently, and test your builds in a variety of ways.

Creating Office Solutions in Visual Studio

Provides links to information about creating Office solutions, and about the role of assemblies in your solution.

Troubleshooting Office Solutions

Provides links to topics that contain tips for solving common problems that you might encounter when creating Office solutions.

Security in Office Solutions (2003 System)

Contains topics that explain how Visual Studio Tools for Office solutions incorporate the security features available with the .NET Framework.