CSPP Integration: Can a Timer Be Implemented as a Word/Excel Add‑in?

hi mani0920​ great question — this is a scenario a lot of integrations run into.

Yes, technically you can build a timer as an Office Add-in for Word and Excel, but there are a few important considerations around UX and guidelines.

Office Add-ins are designed to be task-based and user-initiated, usually living in the task pane or as a contextual command. A passive or constantly running timer (especially one that feels “always on”) can easily conflict with Microsoft’s UI guidance if it becomes intrusive, distracting, or looks like it’s monitoring the user rather than assisting them.

If the timer:

Lives in a task pane that the user explicitly opens

Is clearly tied to a user action or workflow

Can be paused, hidden, or dismissed

Does not overlay or modify the document canvas

then it generally aligns well with Office Add-in UX expectations.

What Microsoft discourages is:

Always-visible overlays

Background processes that feel automatic or forced

UI elements that compete with core Word/Excel experiences

In practice, many teams handle this by:

Keeping the timer inside a task pane or ribbon-invoked experience

Using the add-in mainly as a control surface, while core timing logic runs in their own platform

Making the timer opt-in and user-controlled

So yes - it's possible and supported, but the key is making sure the timer feels helpful, intentional, and non-intrusive within Word/Excel