Add Custom Menus and Menu Items to Outlook

Outlook 2007 brought with it the all new ‘Ribbon Bar’ which has caused headaches to programmers the world over.

Now, using this code you can create a menu in Outlook. The menu, which contains one item, appears at the top of the application. When you click the menu item, the code displays a message that shows the menu item caption.

<br /> Private menuBar As Office.CommandBar<br /> Private newMenuBar As Office.CommandBarPopup<br /> Private buttonOne As Office.CommandBarButton<br /> Private menuTag As String = “A unique tag”</p> <p>Private Sub ThisApplication_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e _<br /> As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup<br /> RemoveMenubar()<br /> AddMenuBar()<br /> End Sub</p> <p>Private Sub AddMenuBar()<br /> Try<br /> menuBar = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar<br /> newMenuBar = menuBar.Controls.Add( _<br /> Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, _<br /> Temporary:=False)<br /> If newMenuBar IsNot Nothing Then<br /> newMenuBar.Caption = “New Menu”<br /> newMenuBar.Tag = menuTag<br /> buttonOne = newMenuBar.Controls.Add( _<br /> Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, _<br /> Before:=1, Temporary:=True)</p> <p> With buttonOne<br /> .Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonIconAndCaption<br /> .Caption = “Button One”<br /> .FaceId = 65<br /> .Tag = “c123”<br /> End With</p> <p> AddHandler buttonOne.Click, AddressOf ButtonOne_Click<br /> newMenuBar.Visible = True<br /> End If<br /> Catch Ex As Exception<br /> MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message)<br /> End Try<br /> End Sub</p> <p>Public Sub ButtonOne_Click(ByVal buttonControl As Office. _<br /> CommandBarButton, ByRef Cancel As Boolean)<br /> MessageBox.Show(“You clicked: ” & buttonControl.Caption, _<br /> “Custom Menu”, MessageBoxButtons.OK)<br /> End Sub</p> <p>Private Sub RemoveMenubar()<br /> Try<br /> ‘ If the menu already exists, remove it.<br /> Dim foundMenu As Office.CommandBarPopup = _<br /> Me.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar. _<br /> FindControl(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, _<br /> System.Type.Missing, menuTag, True, True)<br /> If foundMenu IsNot Nothing Then<br /> foundMenu.Delete(True)<br /> End If<br /> Catch Ex As Exception<br /> MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message)<br /> End Try<br /> End Sub<br />