‘HowTo samples’ category archive
Get insight of Outlook event chains with Events Add-in for Outlook
Dmitry Kostochko | June 3rd, 2010
Every developer who writes Outlook plug-ins must know the Outlook Object Model to a greater or lesser extent. And what is of the highest importance in the Outlook object model as well as in that of any other host app?... Read the rest of this entry →
How To: Design Outlook form regions with Add-in Express 2010
Eugene Astafiev | March 31st, 2010
Today I want to show you how to use Outlook Form Regions that were introduced in Outlook 2007 with Add-in Express based add-ins. In my sample projects I will use Outlook 2010 as its popularity grows up with the oncoming release date. Also, I will use Add-in Express 2010 to demonstrate that our team do not go round in circles from year to year ... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Create a COM add-in, XLL UDF and RTD server in one assembly
Andrei Smolin | March 24th, 2010
You know, a pessimist differs from an optimist by his attitude to a glass: the former thinks the glass is half empty, while the latter considers it's half full. When I was contemplating on the circumstances that made me write this post, I worked out another definition... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Get an attachment size in Outlook 2000 – 2007, part 2
Dmitry Kostochko | November 6th, 2009
In the previous sample, I showed how to get the PR_ATTACH_SIZE Extended MAPI property that returns the size of an Attachment object. To be more precise, it returns the size of the attached file and the size of some internal info. In most cases that makeweight does not matter at all... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Get an attachment size in Outlook 2000 – 2010, part 1
Dmitry Kostochko | October 23rd, 2009
The new Size property of the Attachment object was introduced in the Outlook 2007 Object Model. There exist at least two methods of getting the attachment size in older Outlook versions... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Drag and drop onto a minimized Outlook Region and Word Task Pane
Dmitry Kostochko | August 21st, 2009
In one of the previous posts, we examined the possibilities of retrieving properties from Outlook MailItem when dragging this item onto your custom form. Here is that post: How to get properties of an Outlook email item drag-and-dropped onto a .NET form. But what if the Advanced Region is in a Minimized state? In this case the form is hidden and none of the standard events will work... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Get an IE add-on to interact with a standalone application
Dmitry Kostochko | June 26th, 2009
In general, you can have IE add-ons interact with standalone applications by using Windows messages and the Shared (static in C#) GetModulesByTypeName method of the AddinExpress.IE.ADXIEModule class. There is just one limitation: both processes (IE with your add-on and standalone application) must be running in the same Integrity Level... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Synchronize settings of an IE plug-in
Dmitry Kostochko | June 19th, 2009
Nearly every software has some settings. An Internet Explorer plug-in is not an exception. The IE plug-in settings can be stored either in a file or in a registry branch, all is simple and transparent about this. But how to ensure the settings synchronization for all active instances of the IE plug-in in all running Internet Explorer processes?... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Deal with Protected Mode API in Internet Explorer 7 and IE8
Dmitry Kostochko | June 12th, 2009
The Protected Mode feature was introduced in Internet Explorer 7 and continues to exist in Internet Explorer 8. Nearly at the same time when the Protected Mode feature appeared Microsoft introduced Protected Mode API for developers to use this feature. All API functions are implemented in the Add-in Express for Internet Explorer and .net product and today we are going to look into their capabilities... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Use MS Word Object Model to get synonyms and antonyms lists programmatically
Dmitry Kostochko | May 23rd, 2009
In one of my previous HowTo samples I showed you how to use the Microsoft Word Object Model capabilities for spell checking. Today we will look at one more ability of Microsoft Word, namely the capabilities of its dictionary, more specifically synonyms and antonyms. We will need the SynonymInfo object and SynonymList and AntonymList properties... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Avoid limitations of Microsoft Outlook ItemAdd event
Dmitry Kostochko | May 15th, 2009
The description of the ItemAdd event is laconic and compact - "Occurs when one or more items are added to the specified collection. This event does not run when a large number of items are added to the folder at once." But what is really implied by the words "a large number of items"?... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Convert Exchange-based email address into SMTP email address
Dmitry Kostochko | May 8th, 2009
It would be true to say "get" rather than "convert". There could be only one right way – to use Extended MAPI. Another method is described in the MSDN article: How to retrieve alternate e-mail addresses by using CDO, but we will not see into this approach, because CDO is optional in Outlook 2003 and is absent completely in Outlook 2007... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Support Office 2007 color schemes in your custom forms and task panes
Dmitry Kostochko | May 1st, 2009
In Office 2007 there are 3 available color schemes – Black, Blue and Silver. The background of controls in command bars and ribbon tabs is changed by Office automatically. Do you want to try changing the background of your Outlook forms and Excel task panes when the MS Office color scheme is changed?... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Identify the state and location of an Outlook form
Dmitry Kostochko | April 24th, 2009
Add-in Express 2008 allows placing several forms into one Outlook region or task pane. In addition, Add-in Express 2009 enables the end-user to drag and drop custom forms to wherever they want to (naturally, with the developer's permission). Do you need to know where your form is now and in what state? Of course, you do... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Work with threads in Microsoft Office COM add-ins
Dmitry Kostochko | April 17th, 2009
It is generally known that the Microsoft Office Object Model is not thread safe and accessing some object, property or method not from the main thread may sometimes result in a host application crash. Of course, nothing prevents you from using threads inside the add-in itself, threads that don't need the Office Object Model... Read the rest of this entry →
HowTo: Customize Outlook Navigation Pane – C#, VB.NET
Dmitry Kostochko | April 10th, 2009
What is the Outlook Navigation pane? According to Microsoft, it is the column on the left side of the Outlook window that includes panes such as Shortcuts or Mail and the shortcuts or folders within each pane. The Navigation Pane was introduced in Outlook 2003 and enhanced in Outlook 2007. Let's see what a developer can do with the Navigation Pane... Read the rest of this entry →