Customizing contacts

[Martin Jedrzejewski]

Hi,

I would like to write addin that for given contact would invoke function
from external dll. I know that I cannot add new menu item to popup context
menu that is shown when contact is right clicked. I would like to simulate
this functionality somehow. Is it somehow possible to check from inside of
addin which contact is currently selected?

thanks,
Martin

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You can add things to the context menu but unfortunately there's no easy way
to tell what was right-clicked. It won't necessarily be the contact that is
currently selected. See http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=526
for an example of adding to an Explorer context menu.

To tell what's selected in a folder use ActiveExplorer.Selection, which is a
collection.

 

[Martin Jedrzejewski]

hi, thanks for the hints, I was actually thinking of using FolderSwitch and
SelectionChange events for getting information on which contact (or
contacts) are choosen. What bother me is whether this will be portable, or I
will have to set some version of Office as a minimum.

Martin

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Selection won't change if the user right-clicks on something not currently
selected. I haven't found a reasonable way to tell what was right-clicked.

 

[Martin Jedrzejewski]

hi, I have implemented my custom addin but actually I wasnt able to add menu
item to contacts context menu. Well, I was able to add but Outlook was far
from being stable, if I wasnt using Reset() function before adding menu item
(in OnUpdate) it all worked well, but menu item was seen only first time
context menu was being show. I read that this functionality is not supported
by Outlook Object Model. Link that You have provided above uses VB, I use
COM Addins and C++. I suppose there is no difference between VB and C++ when
it comes to OOM functionality??

Currently I just added new tollbar button and Tools menu item. It would be
great if Outlook supported customization of context menus as Windows Address
Book does with WAB API.

martin

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I have no idea about C++, I don't use it.