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 />

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