Conclusion

Coiclusion

The COM Add-in architecture enables us to create a single add-in that can target any (or many, or all) of the applications in the Office suite and any third-party applications that license the VBA6 development environment.

The code contained within a COM Add-in is virtually impossible to decompile, making it a much more secure medium than standard Excel add-ins, in terms of protecting intellectual property.

There is very little difference between the code contained in a COM Add-in and an Excel add-in; in many cases, the code can be copied from Excel and run virtually unchanged in the COM Add-in.

Because COM Add-ins are typically written using Visual Basic 6, all the best practices described in Chapter 20 Combining Excel and Visual Basic 6 apply.

Both the Paste Special Bar and the IFERROR function examples have demonstrated that an Excel add-in can be converted to a COM Add-in relatively easily.