Include Word Application level Addin functionality to the right click menu of Windows on word documents

Question

On a windows machine if you select any word document (.doc|.docx) and right click your mouse you get a menu with common commands such as Open, Edit, New, Print etc ...

I have developed a Application level word 2007 AddIn which installs correctly on Windows machines. It has a ribbon with many functionality/commands such as A,B,C etc incorporated as buttons on the ribbon.

Is there a way [VSTO/installer(msi)] to add a particular functionality/command of my word AddIn (for eg B) to the Windows right click menu on word documents (.doc|.docx) on a machine where my AddIn is installed?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

You're talking about a Shell Extension. Not something you'd do from you're addin. You'll need to either add reg entries to run something with a command line parm, or you'll need to dig into actually writing a Shell Extension ie a dll that is loaded by Windows Explorer to provide those right click menu items.

the common reg entries can be found here

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Word.Document.12\shell

For Word 2010 anyway.