Is it Possible to Make a Custom "To-Do Bar"-Like Pane?

[Nick Komosinski]

I've recently been browsing various forums and websites looking to see what
others have and could accomplish with the To-Do Bar pane. I've stumbled upon
many topics, and concluded the following information (please correct anything
if I am misinformed):


•To-Do Bar is not extensible.
•Add-in Express is able to add an adjoining form region to the To-Do Bar
through some complex manipulation of Windows API.
•It is not possible to mimic the collapsing feature of To-Do Bar with a
Custom Task Pane. [Custom Task Panes and To-Do Bar Pane are of different
types (msocommandbar and NetUIHWND, respectively)]

Since I am unable to directly modify, adjoin, or replace the To-Do Bar pane,
I am looking to create my own. From what I have been able to research it also
seems that I am not able to directly mimic the complete functionality of the
pane. But, I did run into a post where someone used a custom task pane that
contained a button that would slide out a form
(http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/df4fe74d-381b-4a9b-8c31-67b2e8400267/).
This method is greatly less eye-appealing, and doesn't exactly mimic the
To-Do Bar that well. Is there a better method of attempting to "clone" what
the To-Do bar looks like and can do? If there is not, and this would be the
only currently available method to get this done, I have a few more questions
that I would like addressed.

In Outlook, if the Navigation Pane is collapsed one can drag a task, mail
item, contact, et cetera overtop of the "Navigation Pane" section and the
pane will then slide out, and then it is possible to drop that item into the
slide out. If I am limited to the situation described in the last paragraph,
would it be possible to mimic the drag, slide, drop functionality that the
navigation pane is able to do? I have attempted to search to see if anyone
else has tried to do this, and received no luck in my results. I am not quite
sure how limited I am by having to use a combination of a custom task pane,
user control, and form to attempt to make a To-Do bar.

When creating the custom task pane, by default it has the drop down menu
that has the Move, Size, and Close options. Would it be possible to disable
this drop down completely? I first attempted to turn this off by setting the
appropriate sections to false in the properties of the User Control, once I
saw no results I then realized it is the custom task pane that these settings
need to be set false on. I was unsure how to set any of the properties (such
as move, size, et cetera) of the custom task pane, and was wondering if first
is it possible to disable these, second how can this be accomplished, and
lastly would it be possible to chance the functionality of the drop down (or
add a new button) to that section that would act as the draw in and out
button for the pane? I did recently find a tutorial on creating a custom
panel (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/office/additional_panel_Outlook.aspx)
which would solve the move/size issue, but it creates new issues of making
the window, and how it effects displaying the to-do bar. I am not sure if the
custom task pane, this additional custom panel, or some other method would be
the best approach.

Lastly, this is kind of a side question that I have been pondering, but is
it possible to force close the To-Do Bar, or take over the region where the
To-Do bar is? I know it's not possible to modify the To-Do Bar, but I wasn't
sure if it was possible to take it over or just stop it from being visible.

I realize there are a lot of questions here, and in some parts I am
attempting to explain how I want it to work, so if there is any discrepancy
in my descriptions please let me know and I will address that as soon as
possible. Thank you in advance.

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You can't modify, open or close the ToDo Bar using code. To close it you'd
need to get its window handle and send it a WM_CLOSE message using Win32 API
calls.

Mimicking the ToDo bar using an alternative approach will always have to
allow for some differences in how things work, I don't know of a way to
exactly mimic that without a lot of work and reverse engineering and tons of
Win32 API work. There are 3rd party controls available such as one that
mimic the Navigation Pane, but you have to license them and they may or may
not work the way you want or be able to be used where you want to use them.
That you'd have to learn about and experiment with.

I've recently been browsing various forums and websites looking to see
what
others have and could accomplish with the To-Do Bar pane. I've stumbled
upon
many topics, and concluded the following information (please correct
anything
if I am misinformed):


•To-Do Bar is not extensible.
•Add-in Express is able to add an adjoining form region to the To-Do Bar
through some complex manipulation of Windows API.
•It is not possible to mimic the collapsing feature of To-Do Bar with a
Custom Task Pane. [Custom Task Panes and To-Do Bar Pane are of different
types (msocommandbar and NetUIHWND, respectively)]

Since I am unable to directly modify, adjoin, or replace the To-Do Bar
pane,
I am looking to create my own. From what I have been able to research it
also
seems that I am not able to directly mimic the complete functionality of
the
pane. But, I did run into a post where someone used a custom task pane
that
contained a button that would slide out a form
(http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/df4fe74d-381b-4a9b-8c31-67b2e8400267/).
This method is greatly less eye-appealing, and doesn't exactly mimic the
To-Do Bar that well. Is there a better method of attempting to "clone"
what
the To-Do bar looks like and can do? If there is not, and this would be
the
only currently available method to get this done, I have a few more
questions
that I would like addressed.

In Outlook, if the Navigation Pane is collapsed one can drag a task, mail
item, contact, et cetera overtop of the "Navigation Pane" section and the
pane will then slide out, and then it is possible to drop that item into
the
slide out. If I am limited to the situation described in the last
paragraph,
would it be possible to mimic the drag, slide, drop functionality that the
navigation pane is able to do? I have attempted to search to see if anyone
else has tried to do this, and received no luck in my results. I am not
quite
sure how limited I am by having to use a combination of a custom task
pane,
user control, and form to attempt to make a To-Do bar.

When creating the custom task pane, by default it has the drop down menu
that has the Move, Size, and Close options. Would it be possible to
disable
this drop down completely? I first attempted to turn this off by setting
the
appropriate sections to false in the properties of the User Control, once
I
saw no results I then realized it is the custom task pane that these
settings
need to be set false on. I was unsure how to set any of the properties
(such
as move, size, et cetera) of the custom task pane, and was wondering if
first
is it possible to disable these, second how can this be accomplished, and
lastly would it be possible to chance the functionality of the drop down
(or
add a new button) to that section that would act as the draw in and out
button for the pane? I did recently find a tutorial on creating a custom
panel (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/office/additional_panel_Outlook.aspx)
which would solve the move/size issue, but it creates new issues of making
the window, and how it effects displaying the to-do bar. I am not sure if
the
custom task pane, this additional custom panel, or some other method would
be
the best approach.

Lastly, this is kind of a side question that I have been pondering, but is
it possible to force close the To-Do Bar, or take over the region where
the
To-Do bar is? I know it's not possible to modify the To-Do Bar, but I
wasn't
sure if it was possible to take it over or just stop it from being
visible.

I realize there are a lot of questions here, and in some parts I am
attempting to explain how I want it to work, so if there is any
discrepancy
in my descriptions please let me know and I will address that as soon as
possible. Thank you in advance.

 

[Andrei Smolin [Add-in Express]]

Hello Nick,

We describe Add-in Express regions on our blog (see
http://www.add-in-express.com/creating-addins-blog/2009/04/15/outlook-forms-regions/).
In version 2009, we made the regions collapsing similar to the To-Do Bar.
Also, the regions themselves are now drag-and-droppable.

In your add-in, you can close the To-Do Bar programmatically by "clicking"
on the corresponding menu item. I published the code that manipulates the
Preview Pane in this way at
http://www.add-in-express.com/forum/read.php?FID=5&TID=5227&MID=26019#message26019.
To make it work with the To-Do Bar, you'll need to know the ID of the
command bar popup control named "To-Do Bar" (menu View | To Do Bar). The ID
must be used when calling FindControl in my code. You can find that ID using
our free Built-in Control Scanner -
http://www.add-in-express.com/products/commandbars-controls-ids.php.

In addition, Add-in Express enables you to know the current state of the
To-Do bar and to be informed if the state changes. But currently there's no
way to "slide out" an Add-in Express custom pane. We will have to think this
over.

Regards from Belarus (GMT+2),

Andrei Smolin
Add-in Express Team Leader
www.add-in-express.com

I've recently been browsing various forums and websites looking to see
what
others have and could accomplish with the To-Do Bar pane. I've stumbled
upon
many topics, and concluded the following information (please correct
anything
if I am misinformed):


•To-Do Bar is not extensible.
•Add-in Express is able to add an adjoining form region to the To-Do Bar
through some complex manipulation of Windows API.
•It is not possible to mimic the collapsing feature of To-Do Bar with a
Custom Task Pane. [Custom Task Panes and To-Do Bar Pane are of different
types (msocommandbar and NetUIHWND, respectively)]

Since I am unable to directly modify, adjoin, or replace the To-Do Bar
pane,
I am looking to create my own. From what I have been able to research it
also
seems that I am not able to directly mimic the complete functionality of
the
pane. But, I did run into a post where someone used a custom task pane
that
contained a button that would slide out a form
(http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/vsto/thread/df4fe74d-381b-4a9b-8c31-67b2e8400267/).
This method is greatly less eye-appealing, and doesn't exactly mimic the
To-Do Bar that well. Is there a better method of attempting to "clone"
what
the To-Do bar looks like and can do? If there is not, and this would be
the
only currently available method to get this done, I have a few more
questions
that I would like addressed.

In Outlook, if the Navigation Pane is collapsed one can drag a task, mail
item, contact, et cetera overtop of the "Navigation Pane" section and the
pane will then slide out, and then it is possible to drop that item into
the
slide out. If I am limited to the situation described in the last
paragraph,
would it be possible to mimic the drag, slide, drop functionality that the
navigation pane is able to do? I have attempted to search to see if anyone
else has tried to do this, and received no luck in my results. I am not
quite
sure how limited I am by having to use a combination of a custom task
pane,
user control, and form to attempt to make a To-Do bar.

When creating the custom task pane, by default it has the drop down menu
that has the Move, Size, and Close options. Would it be possible to
disable
this drop down completely? I first attempted to turn this off by setting
the
appropriate sections to false in the properties of the User Control, once
I
saw no results I then realized it is the custom task pane that these
settings
need to be set false on. I was unsure how to set any of the properties
(such
as move, size, et cetera) of the custom task pane, and was wondering if
first
is it possible to disable these, second how can this be accomplished, and
lastly would it be possible to chance the functionality of the drop down
(or
add a new button) to that section that would act as the draw in and out
button for the pane? I did recently find a tutorial on creating a custom
panel (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/office/additional_panel_Outlook.aspx)
which would solve the move/size issue, but it creates new issues of making
the window, and how it effects displaying the to-do bar. I am not sure if
the
custom task pane, this additional custom panel, or some other method would
be
the best approach.

Lastly, this is kind of a side question that I have been pondering, but is
it possible to force close the To-Do Bar, or take over the region where
the
To-Do bar is? I know it's not possible to modify the To-Do Bar, but I
wasn't
sure if it was possible to take it over or just stop it from being
visible.

I realize there are a lot of questions here, and in some parts I am
attempting to explain how I want it to work, so if there is any
discrepancy
in my descriptions please let me know and I will address that as soon as
possible. Thank you in advance.