Add menu item to existing sub menu

Question

In outlook 2007 I click the "actions" menu from the main screen and then click "Junk E-Mail" and get some menu's on the side. I would like to add my own sub menu to the "Junk E-Mail" sub menu's. Could someone point me in the right direction?


Best Regards

Answer 1

Hello,

Here is a C# example of how to accomplish that.  To make this possible, I modified the example found at the following MSDN topic - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms269110.aspx. The tricky part of adding submenus to existing Outlook menus is knowing the control ID of the menu to which you want to add a submenu.  I just posted a blog that shows how to get the control IDs of built-in menus such as this one. You can find that post here - http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto/archive/2009/04/30/here-is-a-way-to-get-the-id-of-a-built-in-outlook-command-bar-menu-norm-estabrook.aspx.
    public partial class ThisAddIn
    {
      //  private Office.CommandBar menuBar;
        private Office.CommandBarPopup newMenuBar;
        private Office.CommandBarButton buttonOne;
        private string menuTag = "A unique tag";

        private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
        {
            RemoveMenubar();
            AddMenuBar();
        }

        private void AddMenuBar()
        {
            try
            {
             //   menuBar = this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar;
                Office.CommandBarPopup cbc = (Office.CommandBarPopup)
                    this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.FindControl
                    (Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, 31353, missing, missing);
               
                newMenuBar = (Office.CommandBarPopup)cbc.Controls.Add(
                    Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, missing,
                    missing, missing, false);
                if (newMenuBar != null)
                {
                    newMenuBar.Caption = "New Menu";
                    newMenuBar.Tag = menuTag;
                    buttonOne = (Office.CommandBarButton)newMenuBar.Controls.
                    Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, missing,
                        missing, 1, true);
                    buttonOne.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.
                        msoButtonIconAndCaption;
                    buttonOne.Caption = "Button One";
                    buttonOne.FaceId = 65;
                    buttonOne.Tag = "c123";
                    buttonOne.Click += new
                        Office._CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(
                        buttonOne_Click);
                    newMenuBar.Visible = true;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }

        private void buttonOne_Click(Office.CommandBarButton ctrl,
            ref bool cancel)
        {
            System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("You clicked: " + ctrl.Caption,
                "Custom Menu", System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK);
        }
        private void RemoveMenubar()
        {
            // If the menu already exists, remove it.
            try
            {
                Office.CommandBarPopup foundMenu = (Office.CommandBarPopup)
                    this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar.
                    FindControl(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup,
                    missing, menuTag, true, true);
                if (foundMenu != null)
                {
                    foundMenu.Delete(true);
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
            }
        }

Norm E.

Answer 2

Thanks for the update Norm, Below is a VB.NET version of how to get the control IDs of built-in menus:

Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook

Imports

System.Collections

Imports

System.Windows.Forms

Imports

System.Reflection

Public

Class ThisAddIn

Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup

 

' AddHandler Application.ItemContextMenuDisplay, AddressOf Application_ItemContextMenuDisplay

Dim app As Outlook.Application = Me.Application

'Create a new txt file to record controls' list

Dim sw As System.IO.StreamWriter = System.IO.File.CreateText("C:\Outlook Menus.txt")

'loop through Outlook ActiveExplorer CommandBars to get all CommandBars

For Each cb As Office.CommandBarControl In app.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar.Controls

PrintMenuItems(cb, sw)

Next

　

sw.Close()

End Sub

' Recursive method for printing menus and nested menus.

' Either the menu is a commandbarpopup (contains submenus)

' Or it is a commandbarbutton (contains no submenus)

Private Sub PrintMenuItems(ByVal menuItem As Object, ByVal sw As System.IO.StreamWriter)

If TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarButton) Is Nothing Then

' This is a menu bar popup control.

sw.WriteLine((TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup).Caption & vbTab) + TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup).Id.ToString())

If TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup).accChildCount > 0 Then

For j As Integer = 1 To TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup).accChildCount

Dim x As Office.CommandBarPopup = TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup)

PrintMenuItems(TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarPopup).accChild(j), sw)

Next

End If

Else

' Must be a command

sw.WriteLine((vbTab & TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarControl).Caption & vbTab) + TryCast(menuItem, Office.CommandBarControl).Id.ToString())

End If

End Sub