Active X Controls in Forms

[Oliver Gräser]

Hi,

I am trying to add an ActiveX Control to a customized Outlook Form. I'm
using Randy Byrne's 'Application Development with Outlook 2000' to
learn. It says there that one needs either the developer edition of
Office 2000 or Visual Studio to do so. Well, he seems to be right,
because if I try to open the context menu of the toolbox, nothing opens
(according to the book, I should be able to choose 'additional tools'
there). I'm a little stunned that I would need the developer edition to
do so, because I also program VBA in Access and can make use of all
ActiveX Controls there. Does anyone know if I really need to get an
Office Developer License just for one little Date and Time Picker Control?

Best Regards,

Oliver

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Sometimes you need to add the control to the VBA userform toolbox before it will show up in the Outlook custom form toolbox.

And yes, you need a licensed version of the control. Package it in a VB setup program and it should be OK.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Oliver Gräser]

Sometimes you need to add the control to the VBA userform toolbox before it will show up in the Outlook custom form toolbox.

And yes, you need a licensed version of the control. Package it in a VB setup program and it should be OK.

Hi Sue,

okay, I'll try to do the first. About the latter: Of course I don't want
to use unlicensed software. We have O2K Pro licenses for each machine,
but nothing else. No Visual Studio, no Developer Edition. I used ActiveX
in Access because it simply was there in the menu - I expect that
everything that shows up in my menus is something licensed as I only
install licensed software. What do you mean by 'Package it in a VB setup
program'?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I mean use Visual Basic to create a new code product that contains only that control and use VB's setup tool to package the control so it can be installed and registered properly on users' machines. If you don't do something like that, you'll get an error when the form runs. You can search Google, etc. on the error, but I haven't seen any reliable solutions.

But if you're using the (sort of clunky) calendar control from Access, that should work fine since you have Access installed on every system.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Oliver Gräser]

I mean use Visual Basic to create a new code product that contains only that control and use VB's setup tool to package the control so it can be installed and registered properly on users' machines. If you don't do something like that, you'll get an error when the form runs. You can search Google, etc. on the error, but I haven't seen any reliable solutions.

But if you're using the (sort of clunky) calendar control from Access, that should work fine since you have Access installed on every system.

Okay, I think I maybe didn't explain the problem properly (I'm neither a
native speaker nor a computer science major (mayor?)). The point is that
in Access, I choose Insert->Active X Control and I get an abundance of
Active X tools. I just try to find my way into that menu in Outlook I
think your first hint might work. Though I get along with VBA quite well
now, I don't really feel like compiling my own VB classes...

Thanks a lot,


Oliver

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Open the Outlook VBA environment. Create a new VBA userform. Right-click the control toolbox and add the desired control.

When you open an OUtlook custom form in design mode, you should now see the desired control on that toolbox, too.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Oliver Gräser]

Hi Sue,

thanks for the hint, it worked out fine.

Regards

Oliver