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I want to create a MS Excel extension application which should run with any version of the MS Excel. I do not want to maintain different solutions for different versions of excel.

One solution that I am aware of it is to use the lowest supporting version interop library. For e.g. use MS Excel 2000 interop libray if that is the lowest version that you are planning to support. You can use early binding with that interop library. We can only use the features that are available with that lowest version of interop library. Also, we are assuming that the newer versions will be compatible with the older versions and hence the application will work on all the newer versions.

Is anything wrong with the above solution? Are there any alternative solutions?

Note: This question specifically talks about MS Excel but it equally applies to other MS Office products like Word.

Anand Patel
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2 Answers2

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You might like to have a look at the NetOffice project: http://netoffice.codeplex.com

its a set of version-independent interop assemblies. includes also IntelliSense for each member displays which Office versions implement that member and automatic management of com proxies. For deployment, you can copy or install the assemblies with your app.

Homero
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I'm not sure if they provide that kind of compatibility. They say:

"Microsoft recommends that you build a version of your add-in for each version of Office that you intend to support"

Have a look here, especially at Multiple versions of Office part.

There still are a few ways that you can go and try to achieve this, like late binding, reflection, etc. You can have a look at this question for more information.

Community
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Adrian Fâciu
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  • If that is the case, then late binding (reflection based) should be used to create a single solution for different versions but at the cost of developer productivity. – Anand Patel Mar 21 '11 at 07:30