XLTools.net Apps for Excel in the Office Store

What is the difference between Office Add-ins and add-ins for Office

An add-in is a piece of software that is added to the main program to extend its functionality – also called a plug-in, an extension, or a add-on. Add-in for Office is a broad term – meaning an add-in that ‘builds on’ and extends functionality of Microsoft Office applications (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint). E.g. XLTools is a set of professional add-ins for Microsoft Excel application.

The same add-in for Office developed with different technologies will have variations in functionality and provide different user experience:

• VSTO add-ins (Visual Studio Tools for Office) have been around for a while now. They allow powerful and extensive customization of MS Office applications. Like any desktop software, VSTO add-ins require desktop installation.
  Browse XLTools features available in the desktop version. Supported for desktop Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, including desktop Office 365.


• Office Add-ins, also called Apps for Office, are the newest and rapidly developing approach. Office Add-ins are essentially web apps that run alongside MS Office applications. They are lightweight, run across different platforms (desktop, mobile, online) and are distributed through the Microsoft Office Store.
  Browse XLTools.net apps available in the Office Store. Work across Excel for Windows (Excel 2016, 2013, Excel Online, including desktop and online Office 365), Excel for iPad, Excel for Mac.

XLTools.net apps – an online alternative to XLTools desktop

Suppose you are away on a business trip and you have an urgent task in Excel. Normally you would easily deal with this task using XLTools add-in, but you do not have it installed on this laptop. Now you can have online XLTools.net apps always at hand.

Note: although functionality is somewhat similar, these are different products. Choosing between online apps and desktop add-ins, consider the circumstances. XLTools.net apps are best for mobile and online environment. For continuous and professional work in Excel we recommend the full desktop version of XLTools.

	Calendar App Dates editing in Excel made easy. As it always had to be. This useful date picker makes date entry and formatting easier.
	Data Cleaning App Clean bulk data in a few clicks: redundant spaces, line breaks or non-printing symbols, change text case, etc.
	Unpivot Table App Redesign crosstab, or 2D tables to a flat list in Excel quickly and accurately.
	SQL Queries App Run SQL queries in Excel and directly against Excel tables: SELECT, JOIN, DISTINCT, GROUP BY, WHERE, SUM, etc.
	SendGrid Reports App For those who use SendGrid for mass emails: pull all invalid, unsubscribed, bounce addresses from SendGrid to Excel.
	Export to CSV App Converting Excel tables and selected ranges to plain text CSV without closing the primary Excel file.
	Columns Match App Match columns against each other or benchmarks and calculate the exact match percentage.