ToolWindows class

The IDE’s tool-window factory — reached through Host.ToolWindows. Call Add to create a new HTML-rendered pane; populate its DOM through the returned ToolWindow’s RootDomElement; show the pane by setting Visible = True.

Set myWindow = Host.ToolWindows.Add("MyAddIn.MyWindow", "MyAddIn.MyWindowPosition")

Methods

Add

Creates a tool window and returns its ToolWindow object. A new pane starts out Visible = False; populate it, then flip Visible = True to show it.

Syntax: toolWindows.Add( Name [, UniqueIdForPositionPersistance ] ) As ToolWindow

Name

required An internal name for the tool window. String. Pick an addin-prefixed value.

UniqueIdForPositionPersistance

optional The pane’s id, which the IDE also uses to remember the pane’s size, position, and dock state across IDE restarts. String. The IDE keeps one pane for each id: Add with an id it already has returns that pane, emptied, rather than a new one. That is how an addin gets its pane back after a compiler restart, which loads the addin again (see Building and loading an addin).

Important

Give every pane an id of its own. Every pane created without one is the same pane: a second Add without an id empties the first pane and returns it, whichever addin made either call, and both ToolWindow objects then act on the one pane.

' A pane the user keeps open:
Set myWindow = Host.ToolWindows.Add("MyAddIn.SearchPane", "MyAddIn.SearchPane")

' A short-lived pane has an id of its own as well:
Set myWindow = Host.ToolWindows.Add("MyAddIn.QuickPrompt", "MyAddIn.QuickPrompt")