In 2016, what is the correct way to create a commercial MS Office Add In? : <p>I've been writing VB6 code for Outlook and Excel for at least 10 years, but it's generally written in the VB Editor and saved as the default project or a worksheet module, therefore not very portable.</p>

<p>I'm at the stage now where I want to switch to .net and write proper add-ins, that I can distribute and potentially sell (so would need to be protected and installable).</p>

<p>However, there seems to be a lot of conflicting advice out there about how to do this, and what software to use.</p>

<p>I'd really like to know the definitive way to do this in 2016;</p>

<ul>
<li>What software to use (I presume, either the paid or free version of VS)</li>
<li>What language to use (I assume a flavour of .net)</li>
<li>What I need to do to be able to distribute or sell the addin (do they still need to be signed?)</li>
<li>any advice on definitive resources to make the switch from hacker-style projects to stand alone projects</li>
</ul>

<p>Apologies if this sounds vague, or isn't the correct format for SO; I'm a web developer, mainly open source technologies, so the MS stack (Office aside) has always been a different world for me.</p>

<p>Thanks,
Dave</p>
