Tailored Tools is a set of tools that enables easier access to most used features in the Office suite on branded templates as well as features that solve a simple use case, including more advanced tools for more custom needs. This article will elaborate on how to support various aspects of this very set of features. 

General

All Omnidocs tools are managed by one VSTO add-in called Office Extensions. To ensure full functionality of Office Extensions, the prerequisites in this article must be installed. Furthermore, the Office Extensions add-in must be enabled. Read more in this article. 

The configuration files of the several tools that constitute Tailored Tools are located in this path: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions

The addin for the solution is located in the Common folder. The configuration of buttons that are present in ribbon is found in the folder called Modules, and lastly the plugins that make these buttons work are located in the Plugins folder. Read more about the Alloy structure here. 

When troubleshooting any issue, it can then be a good idea to start checking if the required plugin for the particular feature is present and/or update the plugin concerned and thus ensure that the solution has the latest plugin. Furthermore, we are able to apply visibility filters at buttons, which is important to be aware of. 

Feature-based support

The Tailored Tools ribbon consists of a wide range of tools. This section describes these shortly as well as specifies where to support.

Page Setup

Even experienced users might struggle changing page setups on advanced documents for special use cases on individual pages. With our toolset and template configuration, changing page size and selecting between portrait/landscape gets simple.  

This group consist of four features and is only present in Word. 

The first feature, Page Size, is a menu consisting of different size options. These should reflect the user's needs, e.g. A4, A3 or Letter. The size is defined with a enum from this list. 

The remaining three buttons enable to change the orientation of the page. Here, the user is able to choose Portrait Page, Landscape Page or Toggle Orientation. 

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04a_tailored_Page Setup

Cover Page

For tenders/visual reports, users might need guidance to get to the most relevant cover page, and this cover page might have several visual options – all of them easy to understand, but not easy to consume. With our cover page dynamics, we allow users to toggle between different variants and settle on the best fit.  

This functionality is present in Word and PowerPoint. 

The Change Design menu consist of different cover page options that are customized for the particular client. The functionality behind each option is normally based on moving, resizing and re-coloring shapes as well as styles.  

Module is located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04b_tailored_Cover Page

Reuse

The reuse functionality allows a user to move content into the new template set without corrupting the styles or the sections in the receiving document. 

This group consists of two features and is only present in Word. 

The first feature, Copy Content, copies the selected text or content within the active document. 

The second feature, Insert Content, will prompt a Templafy dialog from where the user should select which template the copied content should be inserted into. The selected template will then open and the content will automatically be inserted and thus reused in the particular template. How the copied content is reused is based on what is defined in the configuration.

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04c_tailored_Reuse

Advanced Paste

In some industries, there is a need of copy/pasting a lot of content across very different template configurations. With the advanced paste support, these troublesome copy/paste tasks get very much simpler as our tool allows to map styles. This means that specific styles from one template automatically will be remapped to matching styles in the destination template.

This group consist of two features and is only present in Word. 

The first feature, Copy Content, works just like the feature for copying content in the reuse functionality. Selection will be copied as preparation for the remapping and pasting of the content. 

Place the cursor where the copied content should be inserted in the destination template and then use the Remap and Paste feature to remap the styles of the content and then paste it. 

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04d_tailored_Advanced Paste

Specific Styles

A broader range of style supporting features is available in Tailored Tools and is optimized especially for users that are heavy users of MS Word creating tenders/reports/legal documents etc.  

The toolset gives easy access to relevant styles in the ribbon in menus/sub menus that are named to each specific use case. 

Other relevant highlights:

• Custom styles shortcuts based on template type/template selection
• Styles translations (e.g. “schedule”)
• Easy overview of styles in use using the native styles pane

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04e_tailored_Specific Styles

Outlook Recipient

We are able to insert recipients from the Outlook address book into a document in Word or presentation in PowerPoint. With this tool, it is easy to onboard connector that allows user to insert their Outlook contacts as recipients to letters/minutes/agendas etc.  

In Word, the data will be inserted in a content control that is set up to receive the particular data, and in PowerPoint, we use the alt text of a shape. 

The insertion of recipients can be customized in the configuration, but we have two options as default. 

The first one, Recipient Address, inserts full name, company, street address and postal code of the selected recipient into the particular content control or shape.

The second option, Various Recipients, inserts a list of recipients into the particular content control or shape. This means that the user can select various recipients, and the full name of these will then be inserted as a list separated by comma. 

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04f_tailored_Outlook Recipient

Link to Excel

We do not trust the native links supplied by Microsoft. We have designed a simple and very efficient linking method between charts/tables and cells between Excel and Word/PowerPoint.  

This tool is present in Word and PowerPoint, and it allows users to easier link content to spreadsheets, update content and get a better overview of linked elements – and with no risk of sharing the data driving the visuals.  

Module is located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04g_tailored_Link to Excel

Finalize

When documents are done, it is in many cases important to take out comments, track changes, author details and other elements that might not be relevant for the recipient. 

This group is present in both Word and PowerPoint, but be aware that the functionalities within the group differ between the two programs. 

In Word, there is a single menu called Clean Document, from where the user is able to delete footnotes and comments as well as accept changes. There is also a fourth option to execute these three features at once.

In PowerPoint, the group contains three options. The first one, Save as PDF, allows the user to save the active presentation as a PDF. The feature will automatically prompt File Explorer with PDF as file type. 

The second option, Email as PDF, opens a new email in Outlook where the particular presentation is attached as a PDF. In this way, the user can easily send the presentation directly from PowerPoint. 

Finally, the user is able to remove notes throughout the entire presentation using the Remove Notes feature. 

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04h_tailored_Finalize

Advanced Print

To support requirements to certain watermarks, trays or color settings for users with high print needs, we have a toolset that support one-press customized print as well as a custom print dialogue.

This group consists of four features and is present in Word only. 

The first option is a menu called Print Options, which contains the necessary print defaults for the specific client as well as a button to open an interface from where a customized print can be handled. 

When configuring this feature as a quick print option (one-press button), we specify the various settings directly in the module - in contrast to the custom print where we define some pre-sets, but the user will be able to adjust the settings in the interface. 

The remaining features allow the user to apply or remove logos and watermarks. Furthermore, the user is able to reset, which means that a potential logo or watermark will be hidden. 

Modules are located here: 

%localappdata%\OfficeExtensions\Modules\04i_tailored_Advanced Print