User FAQs

If you have a question, please send it to us.

1) Is there any Microsoft documentation for Office Add-ins ?

link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/ 
link - developer.microsoft.com/en-us/office 

2) Is there a forum for questions about Office Add-ins ?
Post your questions in the GitHub office-js repository.
This is used for all aspects of office-js development and there are specific labels for Excel, Word, etc.

link - github.com/OfficeDev/office-js/issues 

There is also a Microsoft Q&A forum with the topics "office-js" and/or "office-addins".

link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/topics/office-js-dev.html 
link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/topics/office-addins-dev.html 

There is also a Microsoft TechCommunity forum.

link - techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/microsoft-365-developer-platform/idb-p/Microsoft365DeveloperPlatform 

There is also a forum on Stack Overflow with the "office-js" and/or "office-addins" tags.

link - stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/office-js 
link - stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/office-addins 
link - stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/outlook-web-addins 

3) What is the difference between Office Add-ins and Office Scripts ?
Office Add-ins uses the "Office JS API" which is asynchronous (and more advanced).
Office Scripts uses the "Office Scripts API" which is synchronous.
Office Scripts is a subset of Office Add-ins.

link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/scripts/resources/add-ins-differences 

4) What type of features and capabilities are possible with Office Add-ins ?
For introductory information about Office Add-ins, check out the Office Add-ins platform overview article:
This article describes various ways that Office Add-ins can extend and interact with Excel, Word, PowerPoint and Outlook.
It also contains links to other resources for learning more about the Office Add-ins platform and APIs.

link - learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/overview/office-add-ins 

5) Are there any hello world examples ?
Yes. Microsoft has examples which have been uploaded to their Office Add-in Samples repository on github.

link - github.com/OfficeDev/Office-Add-in-samples/tree/main/Samples/hello-world/ 

We have also uploaded some examples to our repository on github.

link - github.com/OfficeAddins/ 

6) Are there any regular calls for users to connect with the development team at Microsoft ?
Yes. There is a monthly community call for users to connect with the folks who are building the Office Add-ins platform and JavaScript APIs.
On this call they share updates about new Office JavaScript APIs and provide tips about useful tools, samples, and useful resources.
Here is a List of Previous Calls that have taken place.

7) Can I use TypeScript to create an Office Add-in ?
Yes. VS Code has a lot of support for TypeScript.

8) What is the quickest way to create an Office Add-in ?
The fastest way is to use the Yeoman Generator scaffolding tool.

9) If I have found a bug how should I report it ?
Log issues in the GitHub repository if you discover a bug in the API.
(for example, if an API works in Excel desktop but not in Excel on the web).

link - github.com/OfficeDev/office-js 

10) Will the Office Add-ins functionality and features ever be equivalent to that of VBA or VSTO ?
100% parity might not be possible, due to the multi-platform nature of Office Add-ins, and the fact that certain Windows functionality is not achievable on other platforms.
A lot of progress has been made with the JavaScript APIs (especially Excel and Outlook).
A large number of solutions are now possible using the JavaScript APIs so it's a good time to get started.

11) Can we migrate our existing COM add-in to an Office Add-in ?
There is no simple migration path, you will have to create the Office Add-in from scratch.
Not all the functionality in your COM add-in will be available in the Office JS APIs.

12) What is the difference between Office.onReady and Office.initialize ?
Before an Office Add-in can run the OfficeJS library has been loaded first and initialized.
There are two ways you can do this but the Office.OnReady method should be used.
Office.onReady() is an asynchronous method that returns a Promise object while it checks to see if the Office.js library is loaded.

Office.onReady(function() { 
    // Office is ready 
});