Leveraging Visual Studio 2010 with InfoPath : Create an InfoPath 2010 Add-In

You may use Visual Studio 2010 to create an InfoPath 2010 add-in that can be used within InfoPath. The add-in is an application-level add-in that customizes the InfoPath Designer experience. Two common uses of an InfoPath add-in are to customize the ribbon and generate a custom task pane.

To create an InfoPath 2010 add-in, follow these steps:

1.	Launch Visual Studio 2010.
2.	Click File, New, Project. The New Project dialog appears.
3.	Navigate to Office, 2010 from the left-side Installed Templates navigation.
4.	Select the InfoPath 2010 Add-In project template, as shown in Figure 1. Figure 1. Selecting the project template generates an InfoPath 2010 add-in project.
5.	Click OK.
6.	Add user controls or classes as appropriate; see the next section for an example.
7.	Build the add-in project. The add-in is generated.
8.	Open InfoPath Designer 2010.
9.	Click the COM Add-Ins button on the Developer ribbon. The add-in is available and installed, as shown in Figure 2

Figure 2. Clicking COM Add-Ins shows the available and installed application add-ins.