J-Walk & Associates, Inc.

Try This DatePicker Task Pane App

To get a feel for how Office 2013 apps work, I created a simple one: A DatePicker Task Pane app. This works with both Excel 2013 and Word 2013.

If you have a copy of the Office 2013 Preview, please give it a try. 

Here's what you need to do:

1. First you must specify a trusted app catalog. In this case, it's a Sharepoint app catalog where the app's XML manifest is stored.  In Excel,  choose File - Options - Trust Center, then click the Trust Center Settings button.
2. In the Trust Center dialog box, select Trusted App Catalogs.
3. In the Catalog Url field, type this: https://jwalk.sharepoint.com/sites/jw, and then click Add Catalog.
4. Make sure the Show in Menu option is checked, and then click OK to exit.
5. In Excel 2013 Preview, start with an empty workbook.
6. Choose Insert - Apps for Office.
7. In the Insert App box, click the SHARED FOLDER option.
8. You should see an item named DatePicker Task Pane App. Select that item, and then click Insert.

The DatePicker Task Pane app should appear. Note that the inserted app is stored with the workbook. In other words, if you activate another workbook, the Task Pane will not be available (unless you also insert it into that workbook).

At least that's how I think it works. Plus, Sharepoint has always been a confusing mystery to me, and I really don't understand the concept of trusted app catalogs. If anyone (besides me) can get this to work, I'll be satisfied (and a bit surprised).

By the way, only the XML manifest file is at my Sharepoint site, and that file points to the app's location on my server. The app is just a plain old HTML document, with lots of Javascript (the bulk of which is Unobtrusive Date-Picker Widget V5, from frequency-decoder). In fact, you can run this app in your browser rather than as an Office App: http://j-walk.com/datepicker/datepicker.htm. You won't be able to insert any dates when it's running in your browser, but you can see how it works and use your imagination.

Time will tell if Office Apps catch on. At some point, developers will be able to submit apps to Microsoft, and (if they meet their standards) they will be available at the Microsoft Office App Store. If the apps are sold, rather than given away for free, Microsoft will keep (I think) 20% of the proceeds.

To me, the biggest problem is the limited interaction with the Office programs. For example, an Office app can read data from a range and write data to a range -- but that's about it. In this DatePicker app, it would be nice to provide a list of date formats to apply to the date cell, but that's not possible.

My problem is that I'm still thinking in terms of add-ins. Office Apps are nothing like add-ins, and are intended to serve a much different purpose.