Installing an Add-In in Excel 2007
by Jon Peltier
Peltier Technical Services, Inc., Copyright © 2009.
Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.
In Installing an Excel Add-In I described the protocol for installing an add-in in Excel. The protocol I described was valid for Excel 97 through 2003, but the change in user interface which came with Excel 2007 was accompanied by a more tortuous protocol. It’s not really more complicated once you get used to it, but the first few times it’s an adventure.
To install an Excel 2007 add-in, click on the Office Button, the big round decoration in the top left of the Excel window.
This opens the Office Menu. Click the Excel Options button at the bottom of this menu.
The Excel Options dialog opens up. Click the Add-Ins item in the list along the left edge of the dialog to see the Add-Ins panel.
Make sure the Manage dropdown at the bottom shows Excel Add-Ins, then press the Go button. Finally this brings up the familiar Add-Ins dialog.
If the add-in has been stored in one of the default add-in directories, it will appear in the list. Check the box in front of a listed add-in to install it, or uncheck the box to uninstall it. If the add-in does not appear in the list, click Browse, and use the Browse dialog to locate the add-in file.
This long protocol can be shortened in a couple of ways. One way is to add the Add-Ins command to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). Click the little dropdown button to the right of the QAT, and choose More Commands.
Click on the left hand dropdown, and choose All Commands.
Scroll down, select Add-Ins, and click the Add button.
Press OK and the Add-Ins button appears on the QAT. It doesn’t look like much, just a greenish round button, but if you mouse over it, you can see the Add-Ins tooltip.
If you remember the Excel 2003 accelerator keys, you know an easy way to open the dialog. Excel 2007 honors Excel 2003’s Alt-key menu shortcuts. In Excel 2003, you would hold Alt and press T for the Tools menu, then I for the Add-Ins command. In Excel 2007, therefore, you can hold Alt and press T then I (Alt-T-I) to quickly open this dialog.
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Posted: Wednesday, August 20th, 2008 under Excel 2007.
Comments: 14
Comments
Comment from Tim Mayes
Time: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 1:53 am
Jon, what this that Excel icon that is sitting just to the left of the Home tab? This is the first time that I can recall seeing that.
While I’m here, what are those three add-ins that you have obscured in the picture. I’m guessing some kind of top-secret “Excel 2003 Charting Tools” add-in that you are developing to get around the new charting engine. :-)
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 8:53 am
If you have the Show All Windows in Taskbar option unchecked (Office menu > Excel Options > Advanced > Display), this icon appears when a workbook is open and maximized. It essentially serves as the icon on the top left of the workbook’s title bar when the workbook window is maximized.
IMO the Show All Windows in Taskbar option should always be turned off. Why clutter the taskbar with a dozen Excel icons? One is enough.
And the obscured items in the add-ins list are utilities I’ve developed for clients. There’s nothing else really top secret in the works. Enhancements to existing utilities,which so far are still free, and one or two new things, including a really cool error bar utility that gets around how bad the Excel 2007 UI is for adding them (and it also improves a bit on Excel 2003).
Comment from Tim Mayes
Time: Thursday, August 21, 2008, 12:31 pm
Interesting. I hate not having all windows showing in the Taskbar, so I leave that option checked. Typically, I will have at most 3 workbooks opened at once and I tend not to run more than 3 or 4 applications at a time. So, it works for me. I can see the advantage when you have lots of workbooks open.
Pingback from Excel links of the week - weekend without wire [Aug 26] | Pointy Haired Dilbert - Chandoo.org
Time: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 11:45 am
[...] How to Install add-in : Microsoft Excel 2007 [...]
Comment from AdamV
Time: Tuesday, August 26, 2008, 7:25 pm
“Excel 2007 honors Excel 2003’s Alt-key menu shortcuts”
Well, most of them.
Some are broken in all Office 2007 suite, not just Excel.
Annoyingly, ALT-F-V (print preview) is gone, and ALT-F-I goes to options instead of document properties. I use these two a lot and keep getting the wrong thing. Grrr…
Must retrain fingers to do strange contortions (ALT-F-W-V, or F-E-P respectively)
Comment from Anonymous
Time: Monday, January 5, 2009, 3:09 am
thanks!
Comment from Dave
Time: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 10:24 am
Can I get the ability do make control charts with an add in or do I have to have SPC Excel?
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Tuesday, January 20, 2009, 11:46 am
SPC For Excel has much broader capabilities than simply making control charts. It handles a wide range of statistical processing.
However, for making simple control charts, you can use plain old Excel line charts, as I’ve descibed on my web site in Run Chart with Mean and Standard Deviation Lines and on this blog in Introducing Control Charts (Run Charts) and Use a Chart to See Patterns in Your Data.
Comment from Ross Culver
Time: Monday, March 2, 2009, 11:57 am
Jon, do you have any information on deploying com addin’s? I have several com addin’s created in Visual Studio 2K5. I’ve created a setup project and installed it on an XP test machine. The setup includes the necessary registry entries and the addin appears in the Com Addin’s list in Excel, but I cannot activate them. I can select them, but after selecting they are not available and reviewing the addins again still shows them to be inactive.
Thanks.
Ross
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Monday, March 2, 2009, 12:06 pm
Ross -
I have no experience with creating and deploying COM add-ins. My first steps would be to Google for COM add-ins and VS2005, and see where that gets me.
Comment from LA_Excel
Time: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 4:56 pm
This looks pretty straightforward. Will give it a go. BTW - following the Screen shots is really easy .
Comment from Jon Peltier
Time: Thursday, March 12, 2009, 5:12 pm
A screen shot is worth a thousand words.
Comment from hp
Time: Tuesday, March 24, 2009, 10:08 am
thanks a lot..it helped a lot!.
Comment from Diana
Time: Monday, May 18, 2009, 7:38 am
Thank you so much! I am so grateful for this information…saved me oodles of time while working toward a project deadline!
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