Ty Anderson, Damon Armstrong Cogent Company Session Code: OFC325

RDG Index Project success validation metric Rounds of Disc Golf Success Curve Futility Curve Death March Minimum Success Threshold Minimum Failure Threshold Project Success

Session Objectives What you should walk away knowing Learn the different methods available for customizing the Outlook UI Form Regions Office Fluent UI (a.k.a. the ribbon) Task Panes Learn about the VSTO Power Toys Task Panes with the UI Manager

Session Objectives (Continued) What you should walk away knowing Learn how to work with the Outlook Object Model using VSTO Learn to integrate a process into Outlook that coordinates the different UI elements Learn a bit about using WPF in a VSTO project

Today's Scenario Task Management in Outlook Outlook supports task lists out of the box But we want to manage task hierarchically (i.e. sub-tasks) But we want to manage task hierarchically (i.e. sub-tasks)

Today's Scenario Task Management in Outlook IDID ParentIDParentIDNULLNULL IDID ParentIDParentID IDID ParentIDParentID IDID ParentIDParentID002002

Customizing The Outlook UI The Main Window (aka Explorer) CommandBarsCommandBars Form Region ( adjoining ) Form Region ( adjoining ) Task Panes Form Region ( separate, replacement, replace-all ) Form Region ( separate, replacement, replace-all )

Customizing The Outlook UI The Outlook Item (aka Inspector) Task Panes Form Region ( adjoining ) Form Region ( adjoining ) The Ribbon Form Region ( separate, replacement, replace-all ) Form Region ( separate, replacement, replace-all )

Demo System Requirements Office 2007 (Required) Preferably an installation that includes Outlook :) Visual Studio 2008 (Required) Preferably with the VSTO option :) VSTO Power Tools v (Required) A cold one (Recommended)

WPF and Outlook Damon Armstrong Senior Architect Cogent Company

Key Points About WPF Wrap Outlook objects to enable binding notification support INotifyProperty IObservable

Building a Form Region that Displays Related Tasks Ty Anderson Partner Cogent Company

Key Points About Form Regions Four types Separate Adjoining Replacement Replace-all Key class and objects This.OutlookItem This.OutlookFormRegoin Globals

Building and Managing Task Panes Ty Anderson Partner Cogent Company

Key Points About Task Panes The VSTO Power Tools UI Manager is your friend Manages task panes attached to explorers and inspectors Provides access to ribbons and form regions as strongly-typed objects Implementing the UI Manager is easy 4 step process to implement it in your code Task Panes are really just user controls

Customizing the Office Fluent UI and Re-Purposing Ribbon Button Actions Ty Anderson Partner Cogent Company

Key Points About Custom Ribbons Two methods for designing custom ribbons Ribbon Visual Designer Ribbon XML Use Ribbon Visual Designer template for: WinForm-esque design experience Ribbon XML template enable advanced stuff: Adding built-in groups to a custom tab Adding built-in control to a custom group Customizing the quick access toolbar Re-purposing button action events You can always export a visual ribbon to Ribbon XML

Avoid the Top 7 Outlook Dev Gotchas Let go of your pride and steal code from Outlook’s VBA help file Become proficient with Explorers and Inspectors Start with adjoining form regions Likewise, start with the Ribbon Visual Designer Use the VSTO Power Tools Save properly and release your COM Objects to avoid orphan Inspectors Do not attempt an “Extreme Makeover: Outlook Edition”

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