Associating custom ribbon with custom form region - Outlook 2007, C#

Question

Is there any way how can I associate custom ribbon (custom tabs and buttons I created in VS designer) with a custom form region?

I know that I can extend the existing windows with my ribbon (such as Compose message, Contacts...), but how can I create a new tab with custom ribbons at the top and custom form region at the bottom. Do I have to create a custom message class?

Thanks.

Answer 1

You have to create a custom message class. Basically the ribbon and the form are two seperate mechanisms.

What you could try though, if its important for you, is invalidating the ribbon on activation of your form region and then programmatically update the ribbon according to your needs (dynamic updating of the ribbon at msdn).

If you mean it the other way around (showing a certain form region when your ribbon tab is activated) then you can't have it: there are no events/callbacks for the ribbon tabs being changed.

Answer 2

I have been trying to solve this issue and as Georg said the two are quite separate and behave very differently, so bringing them into line to make them appear like they are related is quite difficult.

You can have a look at my example twitter app at http://vstocontrib.codeplex.com/SourceControl/changeset/view/b35f26fdca15#src%2fDemos%2fTwitterFeedCore%2fTwitterFeed%2fContactFeed.cs

It relies on my VSTO contrib project, but it should allow you to easily achieve what you want.