Question

I’m creating a custom task panel for an Excel Add-In using VS 2010. I want the task pane to always be visible to the user, so it can’t be closed, moved, or resized.

Is there a way to disable those capabilities in the task pane’s title bar? Perhaps by disabling the close box and the down arrow button in the upper right corner?

Thanks

Answer 1

You can specify the Docking of your task pane and lock it so that its position cannot be modified by the user this way:

private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
   var taskPaneContainer = new TaskPaneContainer();
   var taskPane = this.CustomTaskPanes.Add(taskPaneContainer, "My Task Pane");
   taskPane.DockPosition = MsoCTPDockPosition.msoCTPDockPositionRight;
   taskPane.DockPositionRestrict = MsoCTPDockPositionRestrict.msoCTPDockPositionRestrictNoChange;
   taskPane.Visible = true;
}

On the other hand, as far as I know, it is not possible to directly prevent a user from making the TaskPane invisible. Your best bet is probably to add a button in the Ribbon to make the TaskPane visible again.