How can I activate an Excel add-in from the command line in Windows 7?

Question

Currently I'm writting VB functions and save them as an Excel addin .xlam file.

I want to have a .bat script so as to quickly deploy those addins.

Currently, to activate my .xlam addins, I have to Open Excel - File - Option - Addins - Browse to addin files... as below screenshot. This is absolutely manual, repeated & tiring thing to do.

So my need is to automate the activation process.

enter image description here

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 22 '12 at 08:14

I was looking for exactly the same sort of thing this morning. I will eventually try something like this out, but I haven't yet. So, here is what I have come to so far:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel.addins2.add.aspx

This is an example about how to use Excel automation from C#. From what I see, all these automation interfaces are really COM interfaces, so you are not restricted to C# or Visual Basic (maybe you can use some fancy scripting of Windows to work with them? what I will try is to use python with pywin32, but that's only because it suits my taste).

Then, for registering the addin(s), check this method:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel.addins2.add.aspx

I actually saw an example somewhere about how to use it, but I can't find it right now.

Anyway, these are just ideas. I'm very interested on knowing how it all ends ;-)

There's a solution using perl script here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/941456/how-can-i-activate-an-excel-add-in-from-perl-or-the-command-line. Hope it helps you. I'm looking for pure Windows .bat automation script — Nam G VU, Feb 22 '12 at 08:48

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Nov 16 '12 at 12:20

you can insert this code in your *.xlam in the sheet "ThisWorkBook" this code install and activate the current AddIns, just by opening

Private Sub Workbook_Open()
    Dim oXL As Object, oAddin As Object
    URL = Me.Path & "\"
    normalUrl = Application.UserLibraryPath ' Environ("AppData") & "\Microsoft\AddIns"
    AddinTitle = Mid(Me.Name, 1, Len(Me.Name) - 5)

    If URL <> normalUrl Then
        If MsgBox("Can you Install AddIns ?", vbYesNo) = vbYes Then
            Set oXL = Application ' CreateObject("Excel.Application")
            oXL.Workbooks.Add
            Me.SaveCopyAs normalUrl & Me.Name
            Set oAddin = oXL.AddIns.Add(normalUrl & Me.Name, True)
            oAddin.Installed = True

            oXL.Quit
            Set oXL = Nothing
        End If
    End If
End Sub

score -2 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 23 '12 at 19:02

After one manually added time, we can update the addin by copy the addin file to Excel addin lair. Here is the .bat script to do it.

set       fipAddin=".\FIPphase2.xlam"
set excelAddinLair="%APPDATA%\Microsoft\AddIns"

copy %fipAddin% %excelAddinLair%

Hope it helps!

How can I activate an Excel add-in from the command line in Windows 7?

3 Answers3