Apps can be built for Word, Excel Microsoft on Monday launched Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System, extending Visual Studio .Net 2003 and the Microsoft .Net Framework to applications built on the latest versions of Word and Excel, the company said.Additionally, Microsoft Access 2003 Developer Extensions, which provide tools and resources for building Access systems, will be paired with Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System and offered at an upgrade price to users of previous Office Developer Edition products.Microsoft is pledging that developers building Word- and Excel-based applications will find greater productivity with the new tools. Business systems can be built that feature the familiarity of Excel and Word on the desktop. Developers can write business logic and data access code in Visual Basic .Net or Visual C# .Net; integrate with corporate data and Web services, and rely on the maintenance, deployment, and security benefits of the .Net Framework, according to Microsoft. Estimated retail pricing for Microsoft Visual Studio Tools for the Microsoft Office System is $499. Upgrade pricing of $199 is available for customers licensed to products such as Visual Studio .Net 2003, Microsoft Visual Basic Professional or Enterprise Edition 5.0 or later or Visual FoxPro Professional Edition 5.0 or later. Software Development