Advanced Outlook Regions

Advanced Outlook view and form regions

Add-in Express provides Outlook developers with an innovative, truly unique technology of Advanced Outlook View and Form Regions. In summary, your advanced regions:

• Version-independent - advanced regions work on all Outlook versions.
• Embedded into any Outlook forms as well as any Outlook views.
• Added to the Navigation pane, Folder view pane, Reading pane, To-Do bar, task pane docks and Outlook forms.
• Shared by all loaded Outlook plug-ins and may host several forms at the same time.
• Include a region header which helps users to navigate between hosted forms.
• Can be resized, hidden or minimized by users; you can completely control their state.
• Can be dragged between docks; you can disable this ability completely or specify the supported docking locations.
• Can be bound to specific Outlook folders, content or context.

More about Advanced Outlook form and view regions.

WebViewPane regions

Advanced Outlook Regions based on Add-in Express enable you to replace the content of any Outlook views with your custom .NET form using the WebViewPane region. For example, you can provide your end-users with a feature-rich summary page based on your custom .NET form like Outlook Today does or even better.

When designing your custom Outlook forms, please keep in mind that this region shows its header automatically if it contains several embedded forms.

FolderView regions

Sometimes you need to provide the end-user with an alternative view of some folder, preserving the main view as well. Then you can use the FolderView region and add your custom form to any specific Outlook folder. In this case, the end-user can switch to your form using the navigation buttons on the header region.

These work equally well for the following folder types - Mail, Contacts and Tasks. Outlook folder view regions are very useful when you want to provide the user with an alternative view of a folder, yet still preserve the main view.

Outlook Reading pane regions

With native Microsoft Outlook form regions you would be limited to customizing only one area at the bottom of the Reading pane.

With Add-in Express advanced regions, you can customize four areas of the Reading pane (Preview pane in Outlook 2000 and 2002) and completely replace the Reading pane so that only your custom form is displayed with the Reading pane region.

More about customizing Outlook Reading pane.

Outlook To-Do Bar regions

As you probably know it is not possible to customize the To-Do Bar with your custom form using the standard Microsoft form regions.

Fortunately, Add-in Express Outlook View Regions do allow developers to host Windows Forms in the To-Do bar, which is a great location for presenting summary data or invoking actions for your Outlook solutions.

Outlook Navigation pane regions

Probably one of the most useful places to add a view region in the main Outlook window is right underneath the Navigation Pane, which is usually always displayed. For example, here you can create a navigation-specific region where you can display your own set of shortcuts or show a special Outlook view selector, or even display folder specific information.

Complete replacement for Outlook Inspector

With Advanced Regions you can completely replace all pages of any Outlook Inspector window. The standard Replace All Form Region types were introduced in Outlook 2007 and are also supported in Outlook 2010 and 2013, but are still not supported for Outlook 2003 and lower.

Add-in Express Regions, however, do support al Outlook versions and are very easy to implement. You can bind your replace all regions to specific folders, inspector types, message classes or inspector modes (read and/or compose).

On-demand form regions

Add-in Express provides a new kind of region: on-demand regions. This region type allows you to embed your forms under all pages of the Inspector window and the user can display them whenever they want to.

Like all other advanced Outlook regions based on Add-in Express, on-demand Outlook form regions can be bound to specific folders, inspector types, message classes or inspector modes.

More about Advanced Outlook form regions.

Advanced Outlook Regions are part of the following products:

• Add-in Express Regions for Outlook and VSTO - VSTO-specific implementation of the technology that allows adding advanced Outlook regions to a new or existing VSTO project. Supports Outlook 2013-2003 and Visual Studio 2012-2008 with VSTO installed.
• Add-in Express for Office and .net - powerful platform to create version-neutral extensions for all Office versions and applications in Visual Studio 2012-2005. Includes advanced regions for Outlook 2013-2000.
• Add-in Express for Office and Delphi - comprehensive platform to develop COM add-ins, RTD and UDF in Delphi XE2-5. Includes advanced regions for Outlook 2013-2000.

Supported Outlook versions

• Microsoft Outlook 2000
• Microsoft Outlook 2002 (XP)
• Microsoft Outlook 2003
• Microsoft Outlook 2007
• Microsoft Outlook 2010 (x86 and x64)
• All Outlook service packs and updates are supported

Add-in Express Regions for Microsoft Outlook and VSTO

• Visual Studio 2008, 2010, 2012
• Requires VSTO installed

Note! Visual Studio Express versions do not support VSTO Projects.

Add-in Express for Office and .net

• Visual Studio 2005, 2008, 2010, 2012
• VB.NET
• C#
• C++.NET

Add-in Express for Office and Delphi VCL

• Delphi 5 - XE2

How to buy this product

Advanced Outlook Regions as well as all other development components available on AbleBits.com are products of Add-in Express Ltd.

Advanced Outlook Regions technology is included in 3 Add-in Express products. To purchase the product, please click on the corresponding order link below. This will take you to Add-in Express's order page where you can review the subscriptions and prices and choose the product that is right for you:

• Buy Add-in Express Regions for Outlook and VSTO
  (supports Outlook 2003-2013, Visual Studio 2008-2012 with VSTO installed)
• Buy Add-in Express for Office and .net
  (supports Outlook 2000-2013, Visual Studio 2005-2012)
• Buy Add-in Express for Office and Delphi VCL
  (supports Outlook 2000-2013, Delphi 5-XE2)

Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner

Add-in Express Ltd. is a privately held software development company located in Homel, Belarus. Established in 1998, Add-in Express Ltd. focuses on tools and solutions purposed for Microsoft Office integration. It has been a Microsoft Visual Studio Industry Partner for the last few years.