‘Add-in Express for Office and .net’ category archive
Developing powerful Outlook add-ins with Visual Studio (VB.NET, C#)
Ty Anderson | July 2nd, 2013
With the recent Beginning Outlook Development series complete, we thought it would be a good idea to do a demo that shows how easy/simple/relatively painless it is to build a powerful Outlook add-in with Visual Studio ... Read the rest of this entry →
Customizing built-in Office Ribbon groups – C# Excel add-in example
Pieter van der Westhuizen | June 21st, 2013
Customizing the built-in Microsoft Office ribbon groups is something that many people have tried but they usually hit a brick wall in the process. Unfortunately, it is not possible to customize the built-in ribbon groups, however, you can create your custom Office ribbon group and "replace" the built-in group with your own... Read the rest of this entry →
7 features Microsoft Outlook needs today
Ty Anderson | June 13th, 2013
Microsoft Outlook is more than an email application running on the desktop or the browser. It's an application for managing the details of living (work, home, social, and anti-social, what-have-you). It's time for Outlook to accept its maturity and reinvent itself... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook tasks: how to create, get and delete Task and To-Do items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | June 12th, 2013
Outlook tasks are a great way to keep track of things you need to do. I use it every single day! A task item is a standard Outlook type and by default all tasks are flagged for follow-up when created. When any items such as an e-mail, task or contact are flagged for follow-up it automatically becomes a to-do item and is visible in your To-do bar... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook calendar (appointment and meeting items)
Ty Anderson | June 10th, 2013
Yeah sure, email is front and center with Outlook. But right behind it and ready to steal the show is the Outlook calendar. If you aren't looking at email, I bet you are looking at your calendar to see if you can meet at such-and-such time on such-and-such date... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook mail items: how to create, delete, access & enumerate
Ty Anderson | June 3rd, 2013
Mail items are the featured player of Outlook… email! Sure, contacts and appointments are regulars but email receives the most attention. We are addicted to the stuff. And as an Outlook plug-in developer, you need to know the basics.... Read the rest of this entry →
Working with Outlook Accounts, Stores, Folders and Items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | May 31st, 2013
Any user of Microsoft Outlook will tell you that you cannot use Outlook without first setting up an account. This account can either be an Exchange server, POP or IMAP account, although Outlook can support any MAPI style account too.... Read the rest of this entry →
Advanced Outlook form regions for Outlook 2013 – 2000
Ty Anderson | May 30th, 2013
As great as Outlook is, it was not designed to meet 100% of any one user's needs. Therefore, users constantly think of ideas for how we developers can "trick it out". And what do they want? They want custom Outlook forms!... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook 2013 view regions: Explorer pane, Navigation Pane, ToDo bar, Preview pane
Ty Anderson | May 24th, 2013
When building an Outlook add-in you will definitely confront scenarios that require custom forms. In these scenarios, you must answer two questions. What does the form need to do? Where does the form need to display?
... Read the rest of this entry →
Creating a custom ribbon for Outlook 2013, 2010 and toolbar for Outlook 2007, 2003 – C# sample
Pieter van der Westhuizen | May 21st, 2013
The Outlook UI provides a lot of customization options, but one thing almost all Outlook add-ins share is either a ribbon tab or a toolbar or two. The Ribbon UI was introduced in Office 2007 although only the Inspector windows actually used it. The Explorer window still used the traditional menus and toolbars from previous Outlook versions... Read the rest of this entry →
Customizing Outlook main menu, context menus and Backstage view
Ty Anderson | May 13th, 2013
Often, the focus of an Outlook add-in centers around a custom ribbon or form region. I think this makes sense. They are sexy, upfront, and what everyone wants to see. But they are not enough. A good Outlook solution should provide other user interface customizations that allow the user to execute your solution's logic. These other methods are, arguably, the less-sexy, more utilitarian UI components. I am referring of course to the main menu, context menus, and the backstage.... Read the rest of this entry →
Video: Develop Office 2013 add-ins with Visual Studio 2012 Express
Ty Anderson | April 30th, 2013
In this video, I show how to create an add-in for Microsoft Office 2013 Outlook, Excel and Word and add a custom ribbon using Add-in Express for Office and .net with Visual Studio Express 2012. Enjoy!... Read the rest of this entry →
The Outlook UI: Explorer and Inspector Windows. What is customizable?
Pieter van der Westhuizen | April 29th, 2013
It can take some time to familiarize yourself and understand the various different components of the Outlook UI. Outlook is made up of windows, panes and forms. The two types of Outlook windows are Explorer and Inspector windows... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook forms: How to create a custom Outlook form using VBA
Ty Anderson | April 24th, 2013
Because it is composed of different windows, panes, and form regions, the Outlook UI presents a complex UI model to the developer. Despite these options, a common customization request is for custom forms to display the various Outlook items. Today, we'll take a look at Outlook forms and how you can customize them... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook views: How to create a custom view for calendar, task, mail items
Pieter van der Westhuizen | April 18th, 2013
Outlook views allow you to group, sort and view all the different types of Outlook data within the View panel of the Outlook Explorer window. Outlook comes with a few built-in views for each Outlook item type (mail, task, calendar, etc.) which can be accessed via the View tab... Read the rest of this entry →
Outlook 2013 add-in development for beginners: Outlook Application & base objects
Ty Anderson | April 17th, 2013
Working with a new framework takes time as you familiarize yourself with its architecture and best practices. You have to spend time discovering objects, learning what they do, and when it is best to utilize them. For Outlook add-in development (and Microsoft Office development in general), this task can take months due to the number of objects involved... Read the rest of this entry →