Outlook Add-in : What is a COM Add-in? What You Need to Create a COM Add-in?
What is a COM Add-in?
COM add-ins are a feature in Microsoft Office and are supported by all Office programs, including Outlook.
Key benefits of COM add-ins include:
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COM add-ins run in-process with the host program, so custom code generally runs faster than code implemented in Visual Basic for Applications. |
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The basic COM add-in architecture is consistent across all Office programs, whereas in previous versions of Office, each program had its own add-in architecture. |
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You can create one COM add-in to use with more than one Office program. |
What You Need to Create a COM Add-in?
In addition to Outlook, you need one of the following development environments to create a COM add-in for Office or Outlook:
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Visual Basic 5.0 or later (Visual Basic 6.0 is preferred) |
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Microsoft Office Developer, which includes the ability to compile a Visual Basic for Applications project into a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) |
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Any other COM-compliant development environment, such as Microsoft C++ or Microsoft J++ |