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An Excel add-in allows you to extend Excel application functionality across multiple platforms including Windows, Mac, iPad, and in a browser. Use Excel add-ins within a workbook to:
- Interact with Excel objects, read and write Excel data.
- Extend functionality using web based task pane or content pane
- Add custom ribbon buttons or contextual menu items
- Add custom functions
- Provide richer interaction using dialog window
- Jan 03, 2019 The add-in is beneficial from the point that it is a dedicated tool and makes plotting such charts easy. However the add-in is free only for a limited time. HierView: If you want to describe your data in hierarchy or have already hierarchical data, then this is the excel add-in you should use. The add-in helps by plotting hierarchical data.
- A file with the XLAM file extension is an Excel Macro-Enabled Add-In file that's used to add new functions to Excel. Similar to other spreadsheet file formats, XLAM files contain cells that are divided into rows and columns that can contain text, formulas, charts, images, and more.
9 out of 10 times, an Excel user would complain about the slow Excel spreadsheets. And there is hardly anything you can do about it. Well, that’s NOT completely true. The way Excel has been made, it does get slow with large data sets. However, there are many speed-up tricks you can use to improve the performance of a slow Excel spreadsheet. Mar 01, 2012 Boost is an Excel add-in that provides a suite of time-saving keyboard shortcuts, formatting, and auditing tools designed specifically for people who build financial models in Excel.
The Office Add-ins platform provides the framework and Office.js JavaScript APIs that enable you to create and run Excel add-ins. By using the Office Add-ins platform to create your Excel add-in, you'll get the following benefits:
- Cross-platform support: Excel add-ins run in Office on the web, Windows, Mac, and iPad.
- Centralized deployment: Admins can quickly and easily deploy Excel add-ins to users throughout an organization.
- Use of standard web technology: Create your Excel add-in using familiar web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
- Distribution via AppSource: Share your Excel add-in with a broad audience by publishing it to AppSource.
Note
Excel add-ins are different from COM and VSTO add-ins, which are earlier Office integration solutions that run only in Office on Windows. Unlike COM add-ins, Excel add-ins do not require you to install any code on a user's device, or within Excel.
Components of an Excel add-in
An Excel add-in includes two basic components: a web application and a configuration file, called a manifest file.
The web application uses the Office JavaScript API to interact with objects in Excel, and can also facilitate interaction with online resources. For example, an add-in can perform any of the following tasks:
- Create, read, update, and delete data in the workbook (worksheets, ranges, tables, charts, named items, and more).
- Perform user authorization with an online service by using the standard OAuth 2.0 flow.
- Issue API requests to Microsoft Graph or any other API.
The web application can be hosted on any web server, and can be built using client-side frameworks (such as Angular, React, jQuery) or server-side technologies (such as ASP.NET, Node.js, PHP).
The manifest is an XML configuration file that defines how the add-in integrates with Office clients by specifying settings and capabilities such as:
- The URL of the add-in's web application.
- The add-in's display name, description, ID, version, and default locale.
- How the add-in integrates with Excel, including any custom UI that the add-in creates (ribbon buttons, context menus, and so on).
- Permissions that the add-in requires, such as reading and writing to the document.
To enable end users to install and use an Excel add-in, you must publish its manifest either to AppSource or to an add-ins catalog. For details about publishing to AppSource, see Make your solutions available in AppSource and within Office.
Capabilities of an Excel add-in
In addition to interacting with the content in the workbook, Excel add-ins can add custom ribbon buttons or menu commands, insert task panes, add custom functions, open dialog boxes, and even embed rich, web-based objects such as charts or interactive visualizations within a worksheet.
Add-in commands
Add-in commands are UI elements that extend the Excel UI and start actions in your add-in. You can use add-in commands to add a button on the ribbon or an item to a context menu in Excel. When users select an add-in command, they initiate actions such as running JavaScript code, or showing a page of the add-in in a task pane.
Add-in commands
For more information about command capabilities, supported platforms, and best practices for developing add-in commands, see Add-in commands for Excel, Word, and PowerPoint.
Task panes
Task panes are interface surfaces that typically appear on the right side of the window within Excel. Task panes give users access to interface controls that run code to modify the Excel document or display data from a data source.
Task pane
For more information about task panes, see Task panes in Office Add-ins. For a sample that implements a task pane in Excel, see Excel Add-in JS WoodGrove Expense Trends.
Custom functions
Custom functions enable developers to add new functions to Excel by defining those functions in JavaScript as part of an add-in. Users within Excel can access custom functions just as they would any native function in Excel, such as SUM().
Custom function
For more information about custom functions, see Create custom functions in Excel.
Dialog boxes
Dialog boxes are surfaces that float above the active Excel application window. You can use dialog boxes for tasks such as displaying sign-in pages that can't be opened directly in a task pane, requesting that the user confirm an action, or hosting videos that might be too small if confined to a task pane. To open dialog boxes in your Excel add-in, use the Dialog API.
Dialog box
For more information about dialog boxes and the Dialog API, see Dialog boxes in Office Add-ins and Use the Dialog API in your Office Add-ins.
Content add-ins
Content add-ins are surfaces that you can embed directly into Excel documents. You can use content add-ins to embed rich, web-based objects such as charts, data visualizations, or media into a worksheet or to give users access to interface controls that run code to modify the Excel document or display data from a data source. Use content add-ins when you want to embed functionality directly into the document.
Content add-in
For more information about content add-ins, see Content Office Add-ins. For a sample that implements a content add-in in Excel, see Excel Content Add-in Humongous Insurance in GitHub.
JavaScript APIs to interact with workbook content
An Excel add-in interacts with objects in Excel by using the Office JavaScript API, which includes two JavaScript object models:
Excel JavaScript API: Introduced with Office 2016, the Excel JavaScript API provides strongly-typed Excel objects that you can use to access worksheets, ranges, tables, charts, and more.
Common API: Introduced with Office 2013, the Common API enables you to access features such as UI, dialogs, and client settings that are common across multiple types of Office applications. Because the Common API does provide limited functionality for Excel interaction, you can use it if your add-in needs to run on Excel 2013.
Next steps
Get started by creating your first Excel add-in. Then, learn about the core concepts of building Excel add-ins.
See also
You can make professional documents with the default feature sets in Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. But Microsoft Office add-ins give your work an extra edge.
Think of them as essential tools for adding that extra sizzle to your productivity.
But how far you go will depend on the add-ins you choose. As there are thousands of them in the Microsoft Store, let’s dive in together and choose the top add-ins that make working with documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and mail easier.
Step up your Excel game
Download your cheatsheet of the best Excel shortcuts for PC and Mac
How is this guide organized?
Microsoft has a growing fleet of add-ins. At last count there were more than 2000 of these little apps across in the Microsoft Store.
As it isn’t possible to cover the entire Office ecosystem, we will focus on five main Office software and the add-ins for them. You will also see that many add-ins work with more than one of the tools mentioned below.
Excluded from this list are Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, and Projects. Let’s start with…
Microsoft Word add-ins
Microsoft Word in 2021 is better than ever. But when you want it to do even more (for instance, improve your writing) then add-ins can give that extra help. Here are ten add-ins you should consider.
1. Word Training and Tips
Benefit: Become a better Microsoft Word user.
This add-in gives you free access to GoSkills “how-to” cheat sheets from the popular Microsoft Word course. Get handy step by step instructions on formatting, styles, and more, right within your Word document.
2. Vertex42 Template Gallery
Benefit: Find templates that are not available in Word and Excel.
The 300+ templates from Vertex offer more choices than what Word and Excel provide with its default templates.
Templates are designed for business needs, academics, and personal tracking.
3. Font Finder
Benefit: The font management system that Word lacks.
Word gives you every font installed on your PC. You can install new fonts too. But it’s still a chore to choose and compare the perfect font to go with your document.
Font Finder organizes your fonts into categories, favorites, and a recently used list that makes it easier to pick the right font quickly.
4. To-do
Benefit: A countdown timer for your immediate tasks.
Approaching deadlines can make you lose sense of time. This simple To-do Word add-in has a countdown timer that associates with each task you create and tells you how much time is left.
5. I Should Be Writing
Benefit: Combine a timer and a word count counter.
That thick research paper or school essay might need the push of a timer. It might also need the pull of a desired word count to aim for. I Should Be Writing supplies both along with rich statistics if you want to track and measure your output.
The Groups feature is a bonus if you enjoy pacing yourself against a collaborative writing group.
6. Knoema DataFinder
Benefit: Cite important socio-economic data with AI.
This AI powered research tool is a timesaver when citing data is important for your research. You don’t need to search through reports and journals. The side tab automatically scans what you type and bring up the relevant insights.
The Pro version of the app allows you to insert the data visualization in your Word document. But the free version still gives you the ability to research and see important insights and graphs.
7. MyScript Math Sample
Benefit: Handwrite equations into your documents.
In Word, you can use the gallery of equations in Word or manually type it out (or use Ink Equation). The MyScript Math add-in gives you a few more benefits.
Write an equation with a finger, stylus, or the mouse. Tap into more than 200 mathematical symbols. The handwriting recognition instantly converts your input to a clear typed equation.
8. Pixabay Images
Benefit: Search one of the largest databases of Creative Commons (CCO) images.
One day, you will be tasked with creating presentations, flyers, brochures, or just a beautiful Word document. Use their huge catalog to search and insert images into your documents with a click.
Step up your Excel game
Download your cheatsheet of the best Excel shortcuts for PC and Mac
Microsoft Excel add-ins
Microsoft Excel is about cold data. But these Excel add-ins not only help you bring in different types of data, but also design visually appealing spreadsheets.
1. Excel Training and Tips
Boost Excel Add-in Spreadsheet
Benefit: Learn essential Excel skills for free.
This add-in gives you free access to the 'how-to' cheat sheets from the popular GoSkills Excel course. Learn formulas, functions, and more right within your spreadsheet.
2. XLTools.net Data Cleaning
Benefit: Create cleaner spreadsheets.
The secret to cleaner spreadsheets? Ditch the clutter. It can be cumbersome to do it cell by cell. This add-in is a single click scrubber for unnecessary spaces, line breaks, or non-printing symbols.
You can also standardize your data by changing sentence case, converting text to numbers, and numbers to text.
3. ToDo List Pro
Benefit: A step-by-step checklist for Excel worksheets and PowerPoint presentations.
Spreadsheets and PowerPoint Presentations can go off the rails when there’s too much to do. This simple add-in keeps you on track with a to-do list in a side panel.
Think of it as a little project management aid when the slide or spreadsheet work extends over several days.
4. Transform Data by Example
Benefit: Do a reverse search for the function to convert your data.
Hunting for the right function or formula to transform your data is one of the everyday tasks in Excel. It can get annoying and time consuming.
The Transform Data by Example add-in helps you find the right function to convert your data from the one example you give it.
Think of it as a reverse search engine for the function you want to use. You can add your own data transformation code into the collection.
5. Quandl
Benefit: Use financial, economic and alternative datasets from the Quandl marketplace.
There’s rich data all around and a site like Quandl makes it available for research. The add-in is more than a helper tool.
You can not only pull a Quandl dataset into Excel in minutes but also crunch through them with the advanced queries built into the add-in.
The add-in is free, but the Quandl datasets have to be purchased.
6. People Graph
Benefit: Create beautiful visualizations from your data.
An infographic is better than a bland spreadsheet for presenting your data. There are charts and colorful design tools in Excel, but this add-in helps to make data more vivid.
Use the three chart types, different shapes, and colorful themes to make any stat easier to understand.
Microsoft PowerPoint add-ins
1. PowerPoint Training and Tips
Benefit: Brush up on PowerPoint tips and tricks.
With this free add-in, you get access to all of the 'how-to' cheat sheets from the popular GoSkills PowerPoint course. Learn how to create impressive presentations step by step, right within your PowerPoint window.
2. Pickit
Benefit: Create a visual impact with images.
Pickit is an essential add-in for Microsoft PowerPoint as it supplies you all the photos, icons, and clipart you need from its public image library.
When you are out of ideas, Pickit also works with PowerPoint Designer’s suggested layouts to help you get your presentation of the ground.
3. Symbols and Characters
Benefit: Search and use special characters, symbols, and emoticons in your presentations.
You don’t have to go looking for diacritics, special characters and symbols for your PowerPoint slides.
The free add-in gives you a single click lookup tool to find the right symbols or emoticons and use it for more creative communication.
4. THOR - The Hammer
Benefit: Maintain the size and position of any shape across all slides.
THOR is a tiny utility from PPTools that helps you maintain the position and size of logos and other shapes precisely across all the slides in a presentation.
You don’t have to spend time tweaking each slide precisely as THOR “memorizes” the shape and position of the elements and keeps them consistent across the slides.
Boost Excel Add-in
You won’t find this add-in the Office Store. Download and install it from the site.
5. Selection Manager
Benefit: Manage overlapping shapes on a slide with labels.
As the name says on the tin, this free PowerPoint add-in from PPTools is a manager for overlapping shapes on slides. If you have a pile of shapes, use the add-in to give each shape a different name and then re-select the one you want to work on.
This add-in is a must have for designing animations on your slides.
Excel Boost Add In
6. Lucidchart Diagrams for PowerPoint
Benefit: Design diagrams, flowcharts, wireframes on your slides
Flowcharts, wireframes, mockups, and mindmaps are wonderful presentation assets. And this add-in is one of the best in the business.
Lucidchart isn’t a free add-in but the library of templates and dynamic shapes cover all types of interactive diagrams. You can also tap its real-time collaboration with version control features for setting up project workflows and UX design brainstorming sessions.
Microsoft Outlook add-ins
1. Advanced Folders Watch
Benefit: Monitor your important Outlook folders for critical messages.
Boost Excel Add-in Formula
Advanced Folders Watch is an advanced filtering and organization system for Outlook. It follows the email rules you set up to watch specific folders for the messages you want to be notified about.
The monitored emails can be curated in a specified folder, with links to the messages found and message texts.
2. Boomerang
Benefit: Schedule emails, follow up with contacts, and have timely conversations.
Boomerang is a complete inbox solution for writing better emails, scheduling them, and tracking the responses.
It can help you follow proper email etiquette even as you ensure that your email gets read.
3. Custom Signatures
Benefit: Project your unique identity with a custom signature.
Custom Signature helps you design unique signatures and tailor them to the kind of mails you send. It works with both plant text and HTML emails.
Outlook allows you to set up multiple signatures for each account, but this Microsoft add-in can attach a different signature to every type of email.
4. DocSend for Outlook
Benefit: A collaboration and feedback platform for documents shared from Outlook
If you are not happy with OneDrive, try DocSend. Share files up to 250MB with a simple, secure web link. DocSend gives you complete control with instant “read” notifications.
Also, page-by-page analytics tells you who has opened the attachment and the parts of the document they have acted on.
5. Evernote
Benefit: Use the popular notetaking tool as an extension for your inbox.
Evernote is a complete information manager. Use the add-in to clip email messages and attachments from Outlook directly into Evernote.
Outlook can be used for project management, but Evernote allows you to store the finer details of any task or collaboration and retrieve them when required.
Still can't get enough add ins? Check out more of the best add-ins for Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.
Microsoft OneNote add-ins
OneNote is bit of a dilemma. On one hand you have OneNote for Windows 10 and on the other there's the old favorite OneNote 2016. Microsoft is encouraging everyone to move to the Windows 10 app as it sunsets the standalone OneNote 2016.
Microsoft has stopped updating OneNote 2016 but will continue to provide support, bug fixes, and security updates through October 2020 for Office 2016 support and October 2025 for extended support.
Meanwhile, OneNote for Windows 10 does not support add-ins - yet.
Some features that require add-ins in the desktop version are part of the Windows 10 app now. For instance:
To streamline your work and notetaking, you can install these featured apps on OneNote for Windows 10. These are not “add-ins” but separate apps that work with OneNote:
1. OneNote Web Clipper Chrome Extension
Benefit: Save anything to OneNote and then organize it.
Install the OneNote official Chrome extension to quickly capture a link, a region of from a webpage, or an entire webpage and send it to the right notebook on OneNote.
Excel Add-in Free
2. Evernote to OneNote Importer
Benefit: Move from Evernote to OneNote easily.
If you are thinking of moving your notetaking to OneNote, then this is the tool you need. The importer helps you select the content you want and then move them wholesale to OneNote.
3. Office Lens for Android and iOS
Benefit: The free little scanner in your pocket.
Take snapshots of whiteboards, PDFs, and documents and instantly send them over to OneNote. You can send it to Word, PowerPoint, Outlook and even the Immersive Reader.
The free Microsoft scanner app for iOS and Android enhances and trims everything you capture. It even turns PDFs into searchable files.
Excel Add-in Downloads
Note for OneNote for 2016 users:
If you are still on OneNote 2016, then you don’t have to look beyond Onetastic and the Gem Add-in to run your note-taking on steroids.
Boost your productivity with Microsoft Office add-ins
Microsoft Office is the most powerful productivity suite in the market even without installing add-ins. But add these or any of the more than 2000 available today and you have all the extra controls you could want.
Boost Excel Add-in File
Of course, add-ins can’t do all the heavy lifting. It’s important to learn the basic Office skills first and then pick the right add-ins to complement your workflow.
Brush up on your skills with GoSkills’ selection of award-winning courses on Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and more!
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