Workaround to see if Excel is in cell-edit mode in .NET

I have an application written in VB.NET that interacts with Excel via interop. I eventually ran into the known issue of Cell-edit mode (see MSDN and stackoverflow for some background).

I have been trying to convert the suggested code to VB.NET but keep getting the following error:

Reference required to assembly 'office, Version=11.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c' containing the type 'Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBars'. Add one to your project. (BC30652) - E:\ ... .vb:3471

The original C# code (from previosuly mentioned articles) is as follows

private bool IsEditMode()
{
   object m = Type.Missing;
   const int MENU_ITEM_TYPE = 1;
   const int NEW_MENU = 18;

   // Get the "New" menu item.
   CommandBarControl oNewMenu = Application.CommandBars["Worksheet Menu Bar"].FindControl(MENU_ITEM_TYPE, NEW_MENU, m, m, true );

  if ( oNewMenu != null )
  {
     // Check if "New" menu item is enabled or not.
     if ( !oNewMenu.Enabled )
     {
        return true;
     }
  }
  return false;
}

My converted VB.NET code is as follows

Private Function isEditMode() As Boolean
    isEditMode = False
    Dim m As Object = Type.Missing
    Const  MENU_ITEM_TYPE As Integer = 1
    Const  NEW_MENU As Integer = 18

    Dim oNewMenu As Office.CommandBarControl
    ' oExcel is the Excel Application object 
    ' the error is related to the below line
    oNewMenu = oExcel.CommandBars("Worksheet Menu Bar").FindControl(MENU_ITEM_TYPE, NEW_MENU, m, m, True)
    If oNewMenu IsNot Nothing Then
        If Not oNewMenu.Enabled Then
            isEditMode = True
        End If
    End If
End Function

I have added a (COM) reference to the Microsoft Office Object Library

Imports Office = Microsoft.Office.Core
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop

I am kind of stuck. I already have tried indirectly referencing the CommandBar object, and re-adding refrences but can not figure out what is the problem. any ideas?