How to program changes in Outlook Addressbook?

[Eric]

Hello all, I hope someone in these two newsgroups knows something about this
subject (or point me to somewhere else to ask if I'm wrong here).

Problem: In Outlook 2007 (and all the older ones too) there is an "Address
Book" application which shows all the MAPI address books, normally the
"Global Address List" etc. We need to expand the functionality there so that
it is possible to make a phone call to a selected entry within the results.
Perhaps replacing the doubleclick functionality, through a context-menu
extension or an additional button in the toolbar (or something similar). It
must work with all existing address book providers within Outlook 2007.

I thought of an Outlook Add-In, but I think (although not sure) it isn't
possible to make changes or catch events within the Outlook address book.

What can we do? Write our own Address Book application and replacing the
Outlook menu and button to direct to this application would be a solution,
but I think this is too much work for the needed functionality. Any better
idea?

Eric

 

[Stephen Griffin [MSFT]]

Well - you can't subvert that dialog, but you *could* use IAddrBook::Address
to display the dialog yourself so you get the list of items that were
selected. You can then do what you want with them.