Outlook 2007 Views from Programmers' Perspective

In this post, I’d like to talk about certain basics for Outlook 2007 starter programmers. Outlook 2007 is shipped with enhanced programmability in various ways. Looking at Outlook Object Model Reference, new users are often confused by terms such as view, reading pane, inspector, Ribbon, etc. Below two pictures illustrate often used view terms here.

Pic 1 Outlook 2007 Main View

Pic 2 Outlook 2007 Inspector Window

Outlook.Application is typical start point for accessing most of objects. Most common ways of customizing Outlook are as followings:

• Add a new toolbar in command bars [Sample]
• Add a new Form Region in reading pane and inspector. Even, you can also replace the whole form. [Sample]
• Add new functionalities to Ribbon. [Sample]
• Add a new column in the table view. [Check my blog post here.]