Creating Add-in with library of functions

Bryan

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Aug 15, 2004, 3:20:42 PM8/15/04

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I am trying to create an Add-in with a library of functions, i.e. Add(num1,
num2) that can be used in my excel workbooks. I am able to do this
successfully, however I can not find any resources on Microsoft's site on
how to add the help text to the formula dialog that pops up. For example,
when you hit the formula button and select the formula function "Sum", there
is some help text that tells you what the function does: "Adds all the
numbers in a range of cells" as well as what it is expecting in the
parameter: "number1, number2, ... are 1 to 30 numbers to sum. Logical values
and text are ignored in cells, included if typed as arguments."

Can anyone tell me how my add-in functions can add this text to my custom
functions? Are there any Microsoft KB articles that covers this?

Thanks,
Bryan

Tom Ogilvy

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Aug 15, 2004, 3:45:05 PM8/15/04

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with your workbook loaded, select it in the object browser as the library,
then select your function in the right window of the object browser, right
click on it and select properties. Put you text there.

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Regards,
Tom Ogilvy

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Bryan

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Aug 16, 2004, 5:28:56 AM8/16/04

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Thanks for that information Tom. I was able to add some help text for the
function, however I could not see where I add it for the method arguments.
Is that possible for XLA functions? What about for XLL functions?

Kind regards,
Bryan

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Jerry W. Lewis

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Aug 16, 2004, 7:37:56 AM8/16/04

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Help for arguments of a VBA UDF is not directly supported in Excel.
Laurent Longre provides a .dll to help with this

http://longre.free.fr/english/index.html#FunCustomize

Jerry

Tom Ogilvy

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Aug 16, 2004, 8:32:19 AM8/16/04

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Jerry told you how to do it for VBA UDF's. I believe you can in an XLL
although I have never built one, but Laurent Longre implies that it is
possible to do it directly in an XLL. XLL construction is covered in the
Excel Software Developer's kit, but that has been discontinued back around
xl97 I believe (or perhaps earlier). I believe the documentation is on
MSDN.

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Regards,
Tom Ogilvy
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Bryan

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Aug 16, 2004, 11:12:18 AM8/16/04

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Thank you Jerry!

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Bryan

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Aug 16, 2004, 11:14:54 AM8/16/04

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Thank you Tom! I guess that is why I can't find any downloads beyond help
and KB articles on the SDK... That is too bad, I often find that VBA
functions run too slowly. The XLLs seem much more ideal for these
situations.

Regards,
Bryan

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Jerry W. Lewis

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Aug 16, 2004, 10:19:32 PM8/16/04

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It is indead possible (I have done it). If you model on GENERIC.C from
the Excel 97 SDK CD, the last argument in the g_rgWorksheetFuncs array
is the help string for the first argument (which gets reused for
subsequent arguments if no other help strings are registered). If you
supply additional arguments (some adjustment of demensions and loop
limits required), they will be interpreted as help strings for
additional arguments.

Jerry