Usercontrol in custom form cant cut copy or paste

[Mikey]

I've created a custom form in Outlook that contains a custom usercontrol I
created in vb6 that contains text boxes however when the textboxes in this
usercontrol have focus, standard ctrl+c ctrl+x or ctrl+v copy cut and paste
keyboard commands do not work. Anyone know what I"m missing?

 

[Hollis Paul]

Anyone know what I"m missing?

What you are missing is the execution environment of VB6. A custom
form has the execution of VBScript--which is a much simpler beast and
probably cannot recognize the events associated with copy actions as
they exist in VB6. I suspect that what you must do is create an office
Addin of your control, and then use that in your custom form. You need
some one else to advise you on how to do that: Ken Slovak, Eric
Legault, or others.

 

[Mikey]

Thanks Hollis. I am not sure what you mean by "Create an office Addin of your
control"....I do have a COM addin as part of the same project (not vb
project, but project as a whole), but COM Addins are dll's and VB6 dll's
can't have public ActiveX controls in them. If you have any more to offer, I
appreciate it...if not, thanks for the help so far. -Michael

 

[Hollis Paul]

If you have any more to offer, I
appreciate it...if not, thanks for the help so far. -Michael

Yes, COM Add-ins are dlls, and they can run as toolbars or controls in
an outlook form. It has been a long time since I did one, but I had
one that allowed you to paste text from a boiler-plate file into a
message. I presume they can do more interesting things.

Here is Ken's tag:

Ken Slovak
[MVP - Outlook]
http://www.slovaktech.com
Author: Absolute Beginner's Guide to Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
Reminder Manager, Extended Reminders, Attachment Options
http://www.slovaktech.com/products.htm

Go to his site and find out what books he has written lately, or what
is most appropriate to your activities, and buy it.

 

[Mikey]

Microsoft's support group wanted to charge me $200'ish dollars just to tell
me that this was a "by design" shortcoming of Outlook. It filters key presses
(probably for the Edit menu shortcuts cltr+c, ctrl+c, cltr+x) and keeps it
from making its way to the user control for some odd reason. They had no work
around. I complained that this should have fallen under the 90day free
support since this was the first time I called. They claimed that my issue
was a programming issue, and I can kind of see that...but they dont claim
that on their site until you delve deeper into the support options. I also
aruged that they were unable to resolve or even offer a work around. I also
argued that there is an article in MSDN that tells you how to write your own
control and expose the nessecary properties to have your control be able to
bind to an outlook field. If thats supported then why isn't copy/cut/paste? I
did however find my own work around by installing a keyboard hook. I guess
I'm smarter than some of the guys at microsoft. ?? They offered to make a
suggestion to their development team to add such functionality to Outlook.
-Mikey

 

[Hollis Paul]

I
did however find my own work around by installing a keyboard hook. I guess
I'm smarter than some of the guys at microsoft. ??

No, it makes you a different manager of development. Managers, by
definition, are not smart. We are all relieved that clever developers can
still triumph over management. But, whatever you do, don't let them know it,
because they will then leave the product even less usable out of the box.
But, I have to give them credit where it is due: none of the software I ever
designed could be modified by the customer. Absolutely none! That
Microsoft, and others, can develop a whole suite of products that the user
can modify in so many ways--to the point, in some cases, that it is
absurd--is absolutely amazing! Many smart developers had to morph into
managers to bring you this product that allows you to do what you want to do
while you are still in your potty mouth stage. And the management that
brought you this wasn't much older than you are now. (And don't bother to
tell me that you are 55. I don't want to hear it.)

Would you clarify, for developers that come after you, what you mean by a
hook (dll, property page, whatever) and what bites it?