How to open user defined form in a simplier way?

[Lucia]

Hallo, Outlook experts,

I've developed a form and pulished it to calendar folder. But I didn't
replace the standard form with that. So if the user double click the
calendar, the standard calendar form will be opened. And the user can
open the user defined form (to create a new appointment with some
special fields) only through menu bar - Actions.

What I want to do is to enable the user to open the user defined form
in a simplier way.

The first idea of mine is to add this into the context menu. But I've
read some posts of Sue in this forum and suppose that this is not
possible in Outlook. (If I understand it correct, modifying the context
menu is only possible if the user chose one item. So it cannot be used
in the situation if the user wants to create one new appointment.)

The second idea of mine is to add one menu bar. I've already realized
the following functions with my program:
- activate/deactivate the menu bar depending on the folder which is
being selected.
- open the user form when the user clicked on the menu item (using
objFolder.Items.Add("IPM.Appointment.XXX"))

Now my problem is how can I get the user marked time peroid in
calendar. (If you call user defined form through actions, it will
automatically accept the time peroid in calendar selected by user. The
start and end date will be matched in the created appointment.)

I guess there are two possibilities to solve this problem:
- there is one Outlook function to get the selected time period in
calendar.
- it is possible to call action in code. (That means that the form is
opend actually by the menu bar - Actions. But this action is activated
by code instead of the click by user.)

But I have no idea how to realize it. I'd appreciate it if anyone can
help me further...

Thanks a lot

Lucia

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The way to get the highlighted period is to create a new appointment using CommandBars techniques. See http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=616

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

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

 

[Lucia]

Hi, Sue,

thanks a lot. And it works wonderfully....

regards

Lucia