Word com add-in now only working immediately after rebuild

Question

I am working on a Word add-in (a specialized editor) using C# Visual Studio 2013 and Word 2010 on a server2012 machine. My add-in did work OK for quite some time but then I started to enhance it: It does in fact still 'work' - but
only when I launch it using 'run' from Visual Studio 2013 and
only when I do so immediately after a rebuild. If launching it after a 'build' or when hoping to access it directly from Word there is no access to my editor - tab.
Trying to look for it I go to settings in Word > addins > com addins. There I can see the add-in but it is unchecked, and checking it does not help: '...is not a valid..'
I can see that many others have similar problems using older versions - but I did not find a solution. Some people want to mess around in the registry but I am not too confident doing that. What could I try?
Peter the Creative Timewater

Answer 1

Thank you for your answer. Now I did manage to 'solve' the issue. As that may be of interest to others I shall give a short explanation:
I wanted access to global variables and I therefore extended the class Globals:
using System;
namespace BridgeLabel
internal sealed partial class Globals
private static string file_extension = ".bse";
private static string baselib = Directory.GetParent(Environment.CurrentDirectory).Parent.FullName;
private static string sprog = "da-DK";
private string imagelib;
private string bitmaplib;
private string buflib;
private string midtenlib;
private string suitlib;
private string stringbidslib;
private string datalib;
private static string strenge;
private static int spilnr = 1;
private static bool nummerbestemt = false;
private static SuitSymbolDisplay suitSymbols;
public static string Suitlib
get
return Imagelib + "\\Bitmaps\\SuitSymbols\\";
public string Stringbidslib
get
return Imagelib + "\\Bitmaps\\tableBids\\";
public static string Strenge
get
string res;
try
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(baselib);
sb.Append("\\Resources\\Strenge\\").Append(sprog).Append("\\strings.resx");
res = sb.ToString();
catch(Exception)
res = baselib + "\\Resources\\Strenge\\da-DK\\strings.resx";
//res = baselib + "\\Resources\\Strenge\\en-US\\strings.resx";
return res;
private static ResXResourceSet resxSet = new ResXResourceSet(Strenge);
public static string GetResourceString(string name)
return resxSet.GetString(name);
public string CreateFileName(string fname)
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(Datalib);
sb.Append(fname).Append(file_extension);
return sb.ToString();
The Idea to do this came from
another post in this forum. I thought (and I still think) that this was a 'neat' way to integrate the code. But I have now changed this into a static class containing the same functionality.
This does Work and it put a stop to the problems - but it seems a bit 'clumsy' and I will therefore continue to pursuit the matter following your guidelines.
However it seens that it is not straightforward to extend the class 'Globals'
Regards
Peter
Peter the Creative Timewaster