Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Understanding Add-Ins.
Many features of Excel are available only through what are called add-ins. For instance, the Analysis ToolPak is a good example of an add-in. The tools available in add-ins such as the Analysis ToolPak are not part of the basic Excel system, but can be added to the system as needs dictate. These add-ins are nothing more than programs which have been "added to" Excel in such a way that they appear to be part of Excel itself.
You also know that macros are nothing more than programs that you write using a language understood by Excel. These programs instruct Excel to perform tasks that otherwise might be time consuming or repetitious on your part. These programs, if elaborate enough, can become full-fledged applications that operate under Excel.
Excel allows you to translate your macro programs into add-ins, which can become part of Excel—the same as the Analysis ToolPak and others. Eventually you might want to take advantage of this capability. The files you convert to add-ins do not need to be elaborate, nor do they have to be fancy. Converting them to add-ins does have several advantages, however:
In essence, add-ins are nothing but a special type of workbook which you have converted to an add-in format that is understood by Excel.
You may want to make sure your macro code which is destined to be an add-in performs some initializing routine that modifies, in some way, the Excel user interface. For instance, an add-in may modify the ribbon structure used by Excel or it may add a selection to the Quick Access Toolbar so that the functions in the add-in can be accessed. Your macros should take care of the interface modification so that people can access your add-ins. If you don't modify the interface in some way, then users can only get to the macro code in your add-in by directly referencing in a worksheet formula the names of any functions in your add-in.
Note:
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8527) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Understanding Add-Ins.
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2016-03-25 10:15:51
allen@sharonparq.com
Scott: It is impossible to get a list of "available add-ins" because they aren't created just by Microsoft. They can be created by just about anyone who can problem a macro.
Case in point: The list that TomW supplied is a list of add-ins from that ONE company, not a comprehensive list of available add-ins.
-Allen
2016-03-25 07:16:49
TomW
For what it's worth, I just looked up this site with a list:
https://www.add-ins.com/product_list.htm.
2016-03-21 09:03:59
scott
It would have been nice had a listing of available add-ins and what they can do been incorporated in the tip.
2013-09-27 07:03:45
Shravan Kumar Yadav
I want to know how any add-ins may be converted as macros. Because I have to work on different computer and when any add-ins is available at one computer, it does not work at another. Second problem comes when i leave one computer and delete add-ins each time excel asks about it.
2013-07-05 21:45:01
Everyone using Excel should use the ASAP add on.
You can find it at
http://www.asap-utilities.com/
I have been using it for years. It has saved me hundred of hours of application design.
2013-06-22 10:03:37
Robert Ilechuku
At work 2 days ago I spotted that the "EoMonth" and "NetWorkDays" worksheet functions, previously only available in the Analysis Toolpak Addin, had been re-created as intrinsic Excel 2010 worksheet functions.
As a matter of fact, because I was migrating an Excel 2003 application to Excel 2010, Excel assumed that my pre-existing Excel 2003 version was a user-defined function in conflict with its own worksheet version of "EoMonth". Imagine that!
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, and 2016. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: 
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