Create command bar, context menu of Outlook addin /plugin in VSTO 2005, 2008

Outlook plugins in VSTO 2005, 2008 - toolbars, context menu items, ribbons etc.

Add-in Express 2008 for VSTO

 

Add-in Express for VSTO is a visual component set for creating Outlook plugins, add-ins for Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio and  InfoPath, as well as Excel and Word documents in Microsoft VSTO 2005 (SE) and VSTO 2008.

The main destination of Add-in Express is to give a VSTO developer a solution allowing you to create powerful Office add-in / plug-in; add and customize a toolbar, menu and pop-up; build custom ribbons and custom task panes with far less coding and debugging than you have to do now.

Being completely compatible with the VSTO run-time, Add-in Express 2008 extends the VSTO programming model with special visual designers and components. Using the designers you can customize the Ribbon UI for your Office 2007 plug-ins, add elements to Ribbon tabs, the Quick Access Toolbar and Office Menu and validate the resulting Ribbon XML in no time.

New features in Add-in Express for VSTO 2008

• Microsoft Office 2007 is completely supported by the Add-in Express programming model and core. Now with Add-in Express you can customize Microsoft Office 2007 and support all its new features including the Ribbon UI, Quick Access Toolbar, Office Menu, and Task Panes. For all this Add-in Express provides several new components that replace manually prepared Ribbon-related XML with special visual designers. 
• 100% compatibility and version-neutrality. Add-in Express 2008 allows creating the user interface of your VSTO add-in / plug-in in Office 2003 and Office 2007. NEW FEATURE! Your plug-in built for Office 2003 will work in Office 2007 and will show the Ribbon UI correctly.
• Advanced Outlook Form Regions enable you to develop a sophisticated GUI for your Outlook 2003 and 2007 plug-ins. Now you can use any .NET forms and controls on Outlook windows such as Outlook views, e-mail windows, task windows, appointment windows, Navigation pane, To-Do bars, etc. 
• Ability to create custom task panes in Excel 2003 and 2007.

Watch a video:

Add a custom button to Outlook toolbar
Add Outlook command bar controls to Inspector toolbar

With Add-in Express or VSTO you can:

You can use Add-in Express components and their visual designers VSTO 2005 (SE) and 2008 in order to:

• Create commandbars / toolbars, menu and context / pop-up menu for all Microsoft Office 2003 applications supported by VSTO 2005 (SE) and VSTO 2008 - Outlook, Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Visio and InfoPath at design time. 
• Customize built-in toolbars, menus, and context  menus with custom controls, items, and sub-menus on Office 2003 in a VSTO solution. 
• Create custom ribbons and customize existing ribbons with ribbon tabs, Office application menus, Quick Access Toolbar for Office 2007. Build custom Excel and Outlook task panes.
• Add custom keyboard shortcuts or override any existing keyboard shortcuts.
• Customize any Outlook views and any Outlook forms with your .NET forms. 
• Completely replace Outlook views with your .NET forms (WinForms) like Outlook Today. 
• Add Outlook options page and folder property pages at design-time. 
• Add Outlook options page and folder property pages at design-time. 
• Handle all Outlook objects with version-independent event helpers. 
• Add context-sensitivity to your command bars and commandbar controls, ribbon tabs, menus, and sub-menus. E.g. you can show your toolbars for specified Outlook folders, items or views. 
• Build you own Outlook Navigation Pane shortcuts. 
• Access any Office objects, their properties, and methods and handle their events.
• Command bars automatically support the multi-explorer and multi-inspector modes, and more.

Add-in Express for VSTO supports Outlook 2003, 2007, Excel 2003, 2007, Word 2003, 2007, PowerPoint 2003, 2007, Visio 2003, 2007 and InfoPath 2007. It supports Visual Basic .NET and C# .NET in Visual Studio Tools for Office 2005 (SE) and VSTO 2008.

With Add-in Express for VSTO you won't have to care about

• Numerous differences between Office applications. 
• Writing code to create and show toolbars, commandbar controls, menu and menu items, and context menu items. 
• Writing code to show your toolbars, toolbar controls, menu and menu items, and context menu items depending on the current Outlook folder, its name or type, or the current Outlook Inspector type. 
• Writing code to trace Outlook context. 
• Writing code to add Outlook Options page and folder Property page.

2 plugins for customizing Outlook UI and Office toolbars included in Add-in Express packages

When you buy Add-in Express for VSTO you get 2 more plugins included in the Add-in Express for VSTO packages: the Add-in Express Extensions for Outlook that allows customizing Outlook folder views and Outlook forms (Outlook Explorer and Inspector windows) by embedding feature-rich .NET forms; and the Toolbar Controls for Microsoft Office for adding any visual .NET controls onto Outlook and Excel commandbars.

Outlook add-ins & VSTO: Write functional code only

Add-in Express .NET for VSTO is completely based on the Rapid Application Development (True RAD) paradigm and allows you to develop Outlook add-ins faster than ever before. You run one of Add-in Express wizards from IDE and get a special RAD module that centralizes all technology-specific components. Then you place Add-in Express components such as command bars into the RAD module, specify their properties and handle their events.

Finally, you compile your VSTO project and run it. In other words, Add-in Express for VSTO implements everything required by supported technologies, you concentrate on applied code only.

For .NET developers:

For Outlook programmers:

More about Add-in Express for VSTO 2008:

Building Outlook add-in in VSTO 2005 (SE), 2008
Customizing Outlook Reading pane and Navigation pane
Creating custom Excel and Outlook task panes