INTRODUCTION

I was so looking forward when SharePoint 2013 RTM and Visual Studio 2012 RTM were finally out. I was so eager to play around with them and start creating SharePoint 2013 solutions.

The install was finally finished and I opened Visual Studio 2012. My first impression was – as with anything new – it is a bit confusing. The Visual Studio 2010 has more colour variations than the 2012. The 2012 looks more like Microsoft Blend which is just either plain white or black. All the icons and buttons are coloured the same (hence why the confusion). But anyway, that’s not my main point. I can still live with the UI.

The biggest deal breaker for me was the fact that SharePoint 2013 project templates were not available out-of-the-box! There were the SharePoint 2010 project templates but not the 2012. And when I tried to create a project using the 2010 template it says that, “SharePoint Server is not installed”.

SOLUTION

You need to install the Microsoft Office Developer Tools for Visual Studio 2012. Download it from the following URL:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/apps/fp123627.aspx

Or if you want a direct link:

http://www.microsoft.com/web/handlers/WebPI.ashx?command=GetInstallerRedirect&appid=OfficeToolsForVS2012GA

If you run Visual Studio 2012 Release Candidate, you need to download a different tool:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=257068

Hope this helps,

Tommy