MORE INFORMATION
What Products Are Eligible for Developer Support?
The following Office programs are eligible for Microsoft Office
Developer Support: Microsoft Access, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft
Outlook, Microsoft FrontPage, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Microsoft Office
Developer.
Other programs that are included with various editions of
Office are not eligible because they do not contain object models, or are not
designed to be customized or programmed as part of a solution.
Suggested Resources to Check Before Contacting Support
What Is a Developer Support Incident?
An incident is defined as a single support issue and the
commercially reasonable effort needed to resolve it. A single support issue is
a problem that cannot be broken down into subordinate problems. If a problem
consists of subordinate problems, each shall be considered a separate incident.
Before Microsoft provides support for an incident, you and the Microsoft
designated Support Professional must agree on what the problem is and the
parameters for an acceptable solution. An incident may require multiple phone
calls and off-line research to resolve it. A Microsoft product bug is not
considered a fee-based incident.
Problems should be broken down to
the smallest scope possible. Because developers are most familiar with
solutions they created, you are in the best position to quickly narrow down the
scope of a problem. This will typically reduce the total time needed to resolve
issues.
If a Support Professional needs to view the code that you are
using, try to make the code as short as possible while still reproducing the
problem that you are having. The code should be able to be run independently of
the solution that you are creating.
For larger development projects,
Support Professionals only provide sample code that is relevant to the support
incident. It is your responsibility to integrate the code sample into your
solution. The Support Professional cannot help you design your solution or
business rules, or provide code that you can use directly in your solution.
Microsoft Personal Support
Personal Support provides support for installing, deploying,
configuring, and using an Office program. Personal Support Professionals can
provide assistance with explaining how to record macros and how to access the
developer-related features. They can also suggest appropriate resources for you
to get started. However, Microsoft Support Professionals that provide Personal
support are not trained in developer technologies. If you have a specific
question that is related to your custom solution, you can either consult the
resources that are mentioned earlier in this article, or you can submit a
Professional Support incident to obtain support from Microsoft.
Microsoft Professional Support
Professional Support assists Office customers and solution
developers in creating solutions that involve an Office product, within the
guidelines specified below. Although Microsoft Product Support Services (PSS)
can assist you with a wide variety of potential issues, PSS cannot provide
ongoing training or perform a consulting role to assist you in creating your
solution. As a developer, try to narrow down a problem to the smallest possible
scope; this enables a Support Professional to help you in the most efficient
manner.
NOTE: If you are not a developer and want to have a solution created
for you, Microsoft generally recommends that you contact an independent
solution provider. A solution provider can provide ongoing assistance and
support for a solution that is suited to your needs.
For information
about Microsoft Certified Partners in your local area, visit the following
Microsoft Web site:
Or you can contact the Microsoft Certified Partner Information
line at (800) 765-7768 in the US or (877) 568-2495 in Canada. For information
about support in other locations, contact a local Microsoft subsidiary.
What Support Is Provided by Professional Support?
- Recording of macros (where applicable) within the various
Office programs.
- Programming with an Office program's object model from
within that same program.
- Automating an Office program from other programming
environments that support automation. This includes, but is not limited to,
other Microsoft programs such as, Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications,
Microsoft Visual C++, Microsoft Visual Basic, Microsoft Visual J++, Microsoft
VBScript, Microsoft WordBasic, and any other third-party products or
components. Office Developer Support provides assistance with the various
Office object models.
- The use of ActiveX controls (*.ocx) within Office-based
forms or other control containers. Controls that are installed by Office or
Office Developer are fully supported.
NOTE: If you are having a problem with a custom or third-party control
on an Office-based form, try to use the control on a Visual Basic form or other
container. Often, issues related to controls occur in various control
containers and this indicates an issue with the control, not Office. Office
Developer Support can only assist you if the problem is specific to using the
control on an Office-based form. - Using the Office Visual Basic Editor, the Script Editor,
the Script Debugger, and other developer-related tools that are included with
Office and Office Developer.
- Questions related to deploying Office solutions using
technologies included with Office and Office Developer, such as the Package and
Deployment Wizard.
- Accounting for and documenting bugs in Office
programs.
- Data Access Pages in Access. Support provided will be
specific to the Office object models and DHTML object models.
- Office-related programming involving XML, HTML, DHTML, VB
Script, and JScript. Office Developer Support supports these languages and the
controls available within the Script Editor and the Visual Basic Editor. Code
samples provided in these languages are specific to an Office program object
model.
- HTML tags when used with FrontPage. Support for HTML is
limited to assistance with inserting HTML, modifying existing HTML, and the
correct syntax of HTML tags within the following guidelines:
- HTML tags supported and explained must be part of the
current W3C Recommendation on HTML, which can be found at
http://www.w3.org.
Creating or troubleshooting tags which are at the "Proposed Recommendation" or
"Working Draft" stage is not supported.
- Guidance in determining which browser-specific tags are
supported by the most current browsers that are available to the general
public.
NOTE: These guidelines for HTML also apply to Cascading Style Sheets,
as defined at http://www.w3.org/Style/.
What Support Is Not Provided by Professional Support?
- The object models of third-party products.
- Questions specific to the use of non-Office programming
environments.
- Modifying in any way the HTML, XML, or DHTML in files that
have been saved by an Office program (excluding FrontPage). After the HTML file
is modified by another program, such as a text editor or FrontPage 2000, it is
no longer in the native file format of an Office 2000 program and cannot be
supported by Office Support or Office Developer Support.
- Editing or in any way modifying .htt files. These files are
critical to the operation of Microsoft Windows when using Active
Desktop.
- Writing code that adds functionality to your existing
solution. This level of service is provided by Microsoft Advisory
Services.
- Actively debugging your solution. Instead, Support
Professionals can offer advice on how you can use debugging tools and methods.
If you need direct assistance with debugging your solution, this level of
service is provided by Microsoft Advisory Services.
Contact Information
To submit a Professional developer-related incident from the Web,
browse to:
If you want to speak to a Microsoft Support Professional, the
number to call depends on the nature of your question. If your question is
specific to technologies that are included with Microsoft Office or Microsoft
Office Developer, call one of the following phone numbers, depending on the
appropriate program:
(425) 635-7050 Microsoft Access
(425) 462-9673 Microsoft Word
(425) 635-7070 Microsoft Excel
(425) 635-7088 Microsoft FrontPage
(425) 635-7145 Microsoft PowerPoint
(425) 635-7118 Microsoft Office Developer (for questions specific to
features included only with Microsoft Office Developer) If your question is beyond the scope of what is included with
Microsoft Office or Microsoft Office Developer, or is about Microsoft Outlook
or messaging technologies, call (800) 936-5800. This support includes, but is
not limited to:
- Automating Office programs by using Visual C++, where the
issue is directly related to the C++ programming language or
constructs.
- Creating ActiveX controls for use in Office, where the
issue is not directly related to Office.
- Working with Microsoft Internet Information Server,
Microsoft Site Server, or other server-based Web development
projects.
- Support for the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications
SDK, which allows Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to license Visual Basic
for Applications, for use within their own application.
- Implementing custom FrontPage WebBots or editing the HTML
within a FrontPage WebBot.
Premier Support
If you have a Microsoft Premier Support contract, you can submit
an incident as you typically would for any incident.
Advisory Services
The Microsoft Advisory Service support offering provides
consulting-level support that directly involves your solution. Microsoft will
assess your project requirements and provide sample code to illustrate a
particular technology, product feature, or development paradigm. Any source
code provided by Microsoft is for illustrative purposes only and is not
intended for production use.
The minimum charge is $210 for the
first hour of support, with additional hours billed at $210 per hour. Prior to
providing a solution, the Support Professional reviews what you are trying to
accomplish and estimates the time required to provide assistance. If the
estimate is greater than one hour, a proposal contract is faxed for your
approval. If the initial estimate is not satisfactory, you receive a refund of
the initial $210.
NOTE: Support Professionals can spend a maximum of 40 hours per
solution.
To submit an Advisory Services incident in the United
States and Canada, call (800) 936-5200.