Apps for Office Brings Store Model to Platform

Office 2013 introduces a new development model for extending Office applications and Office Web Apps called Apps for Office. The new model provides a way for organizations and ISVs to leverage existing Web applications by hosting their functionality within Office applications. Apps that use this model can provide Office users with custom server-driven functionality, such as access to data, maps, and social networks. The model can also be used to enhance Web applications with the tools in Office. The Office Store, similar to mobile device app stores, facilitates app sales. However, adoption has been slow so far.

New Extension Model Joins VBA, VSTO

Apps for Office is the latest model for developing custom extensions to Office applications. It joins the earlier Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) and Visual Studio Tools for Office (VSTO) models, which are still supported in Office 2013. As with the earlier models, developers can use Apps for Office to create applications that integrate Office and other systems, enabling users to do tasks without leaving an Office application. For example, an Outlook-integrated application might allow a salesperson to take an e-mail from a customer and look up the customer’s data in a customer relationship management (CRM) system without having to use a separate CRM client application, thereby allowing the salesperson to respond more quickly and accurately.