Word 2007 Global Class

Question

Greetings,
Using VS 2008 -VSTO - Word 2007 Add-In wizard.
Is there a way to add your own global references to the system generated Globals internal class? For example, I'd like to keep track of the document opened during a session. if an event handler gets a reference to the document deep clones it and adds it to a hash structure, I'd like this "structure" to be stored under the Global internal class.
On a different note, I do appreciate the ammount of work that went into build this framework. It makes it simple to build add-ins. The problem I have is that a lot of the power has been hidden by the framework, while that is very good for novices, it takes away control for an old guy like me.  Would it be possible to build just a assembly that gets loaded into an office application address space and shares the document model with it? Once again, the wizard is good, but I'd like a little more room to wiggle.
Thanks,
PP

Answer 1

You can definately add your own properties to the generated Globals class.  Globals is a partial class defined in your add-in's designer file.  To extend it, simply add another partial implementation in another file.  Below is an example in C#:
internal sealed partial class Globals
    internal static string MyCustomString { get; set; }
public partial class ThisAddIn
    private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        Globals.MyCustomString = "Hello world!";
    private void ThisAddIn_Shutdown(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
Here is another example in VB:
Partial Friend NotInheritable Class Globals
    Private Shared _MyCustomString As String
    Friend Shared Property MyCustomString() As String
        Get
            Return _MyCustomString
        End Get
        Set(ByVal value As String)
            _MyCustomString = value
        End Set
    End Property
End Class
Public Class ThisAddIn
    Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
        Globals.MyCustomString = "Hello world!"
    End Sub
    Private Sub ThisAddIn_Shutdown(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Shutdown
    End Sub
End Class
Regarding your second question, what control do you feel you have lost?  VSTO add-ins have access to the same Word object model used by non-VSTO add-ins.  Is there something in particular you would like to do in your add-in that you feel VSTO does not allow?
-Phil