Friday, October 22, 2021

Office Add-ins community call – October 13, 2021

OctAdd-insRecordingThumb.png

 

Call Summary

This month's community call features presentations - Word API updates (extensibility API updates - Word Online Only APIs, Bookmarks APIs, Shared Runtime Support, and Upcoming APIs), Outlook on Mac API updates (new extensibility updates – Mailbox 1.9 GA, Upcoming – Mailbox 1.10 Signature APIs, and Upcoming - Event-based Outlook add-ins), and Demo: Hello World code sample (deliver the iconic greeting from Word, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint add-ins). This month’s community spotlight recognizes MVP Maarten van Stam and Eric Legault for their continued contributions. Thank so much! Register for the PnP Recognition Program. Q&A live and in chat throughout call. The call was hosted by David Chesnut (Microsoft) | @davidchesnut

 

Microsoft Presenters:

  • Abid Rahman - Program Manager
  • Ashima Mathur - Program Manager
  • David Chesnut - Senior Dev Writer

 

 

Agenda

  • Word API updates - Abid Rahman, Program Manager (Microsoft) –  1:07
  • Outlook on Mac API updates Ashima Mathur, Program Manager (Microsoft) - 10:11
  • Demo: Hello world code sample - David Chesnut, Senior Dev Writer (Microsoft) - 19:19
  • Community spotlight - Eric Legault, Maarten van Stam – 29:31
  • Q&A – 30:27

 

Actions

 

Q&A (Question & Answers)

Can you please demo, or provide sample code for events in Office Word add-ins?

 

Go to https://github.com/OfficeDev/ and search for "Word" to find several code samples that may have the information you need in the archive. For example, https://github.com/OfficeDev/Word-Add-in-JavaScript-AddPopulateBindings shows how to create and bind to content controls. If there are specific scenarios you want to see in a demo or sample, please create an issue at https://github.com/OfficeDev/PnP-OfficeAddins. This is where we publish new samples and it would be great to learn more about what you'd like to see in the sample!

 

Are there any plans to allow activating Outlook add-ins to include examining email headers? I've raised the issue on Developer Platform already but wanted to know if it had come up internally.

 

We don't have plans to enable examining email headers at this time. It looks like a feature request was created for this idea at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-developer-platform/activate-contextual-add-ins-using-regex-based-on-headers-in/idi-p/2781149. If developers can upvote or tell us more about this scenario that will help in our planning down the road.


Can we please have the ability for admins to pin Office Add-ins to the toolbar in the new Outlook experience?

 

We don't have plans to support pinning Office Add-ins at this time. If you could create a feature request at https://aka.ms/m365dev-suggestions and tell us more about this scenario that will help in our planning.


Following up on questions from the November 2020 Call: Could we have a method for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint to save a file? Word and Excel have context.document.save() and context.workbook.save() but they lack options for similar behavior (eg. skip save dialogue). PowerPoint does not have context.presentation.save() yet. Could we have an equivalent method for all 3 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) with similar options/behaviors? This is really needed for developers. Similar to the previous question, could we have an equivalent method for all 3 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) to close files with similar options/behaviors? 

 

Back in November 2020, we had PowerPoint save and close methods on the roadmap. Unfortunately, we had to shift resources and reprioritize, and these are no longer on the roadmap. So we apologize about the confusion on the planning for these methods. We can't guarantee the roadmap won't change over time but we try to stick to the roadmap as much as we can.

The best way to keep these methods on our planning radar is to request them at https://aka.ms/m365dev-suggestions. It looks like there is already a feature request for these methods at https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-developer-platform/office-js-save-and-close-methods-for-word-excel-and-powerpoint/idi-p/2800214. So if you or anyone is interested in these methods, please upvote and let us know more about your scenarios.


We'd like to hear more about the roadmap of Office.js development for PowerPoint automation. We're interested in the following functionalities: Creating new slides based on different master slide templates, mass updates of footers, and mass updates of text string that follow certain logic (similar to Word placeholders).

 

To insert slides from different slide masters, use the insertSlidesFromBase64() API which supports slide master options (currently in beta).

We don't have footer manipulation APIs, or find and replace logic similar to PowerPoint. Please tell us more about these scenarios by creating a feature request at https://aka.ms/m365dev-suggestions.


Are the new Word APIs available cross-platform?

 

In general, new Word APIs are available on Word on the web first. Later they are available for other platforms. The Comments and Footnotes APIs are only available on Word on the web at this time. We do plan to make them available cross-platform in the future.

 

Is it possible to download the full beta API library locally instead of using the CDN endpoint at https://appsforoffice.microsoft.com/lib/beta/hosted/office.js? The non-beta library can be downloaded using NuGet, but I can't seem to find the beta.

 

We don't provide a preview (beta) version of the office.js library to be used in offline scenarios. For more information on offline target scenarios, see https://www.npmjs.com/package/@microsoft/office-js.

Trying out preview APIs requires that you reference the beta endpoint. For more information on how to reference release and preview versions of the APIs, see Referencing the Office JavaScript API library.

 

Will the BeforeSave and BeforeClose events be coming for Excel? Will the ability to turn AutoSave off and on be coming for Excel?

 

The BeforeClose event is on our backlog, but we don't yet have an ETA for when it will be ready.

 

The BeforeSave event is not on our roadmap. The ability to turn AutoSave off and on is also not on our roadmap. Currently, we're focusing on building out APIs that apply to all platforms (web, Windows, Mac, mobile.) These features only apply to desktop platforms because web is AutoSave by default. But we'd like to understand more about your scenario. Please submit a feature request for this at https://aka.ms/m365dev-suggestions.

 

Resources

 

Word Extensibility (API) Updates

Outlook extensibility on Mac API updates

Demo: Hello World code sample

Office Add-ins community call

Office Add-ins feedback

 

 

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