How to add a CommandBar and buttons in Outlook 2003 mail window?

Question

How to add a CommandBar and buttons in Outlook 2003 mail window?

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

Answer 1

Outlook application has two types of UI windows: Explorer Window and Inspector Window. The main UI window is an explorer, and the mail/contact/appointment/meeting item window is the inspector type. We can add a command bar into the explorer window easily by calling this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.Add(…).

But in order to add a command bar and buttons into the inspector window, we need to listen to Application.Inspectors.NewInspector event. This event fires whenever a new inspector is created and shown. In the handler function, we receive an instance of inspector object from the parameter. Then we can call Inspector.CommandBars.Add(…) to create the command bar.

The codes look like:

        Outlook.Inspectors inspectors = null;

        Office.CommandBar cb;

        Office.CommandBarComboBox edt;

        Office.CommandBarButton btn;

 

        private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)

        {

            inspectors.NewInspector += new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.InspectorsEvents_NewInspectorEventHandler(inspectors_NewInspector);

        }

 

        void inspectors_NewInspector(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector Inspector)

        {

 

            cb = Inspector.CommandBars.Add("test", Office.MsoBarPosition.msoBarTop,

                false, true) as Office.CommandBar;

            cb.Visible = true;

            cb.Protection = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarProtection.msoBarNoCustomize;

 

            edt = cb.Controls.Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlEdit, missing, missing, missing, true) as Office.CommandBarComboBox;

            edt.Caption = "My Editor";

            edt.Tag = "My Editor";

 

            btn = cb.Controls.Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, missing, missing, missing, true) as Office.CommandBarButton;

            btn.Caption = "My Button";

            btn.Tag = "My Button";

        }

(Related forum thread, http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/forums/en-US/vsto/thread/4ca19753-9883-4a86-a825-36de4e3ba941/ )

For more FAQ about Visual Studio Tools for Office, please see Visual Studio Tools for Office FAQ

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Please remember to mark the replies as answers if they help and unmark them if they provide no help.

 

Answer 2

Add VB version codes,

public class ThisAddIn
    Dim inspectors As Outlook.Inspectors
    Dim cb As Office.CommandBar
    Dim edt As Office.CommandBarComboBox
    Dim btn As Office.CommandBarButton
   
    Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
        inspectors = Application.Inspectors
        AddHandler inspectors.NewInspector, AddressOf inspectors_NewInspector
    End Sub

    Sub inspectors_NewInspector(ByVal Inspector As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Inspector)
        cb = Inspector.CommandBars.Add("test", Office.MsoBarPosition.msoBarTop, False, True)
        cb.Visible = True
        cb.Protection = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarProtection.msoBarNoCustomize
        edt = cb.Controls.Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlEdit, , , , True)
        edt.Caption = "My Editor"
        edt.Tag = "My Editor"
        btn = cb.Controls.Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, , , , True)
        btn.Caption = "My Button"
        btn.Tag = "My Button"
    End Sub
End Class

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