Add-in Express Regions for Outlook and VSTO
Customize Outlook forms and views with .NET controls
Add-in Express Regions for Microsoft Outlook and VSTO is an extension of Visual Studio Tools for Office that allows you to customize Outlook forms and views with any .NET controls.
This component allows you to effectively add advanced Outlook regions to any VSTO project, either a new or existing one. You can create regions for the main Outlook Explorer window (up to 17 different areas are supported) or all Outlook Inspector windows.
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More about Advanced Outlook Regions
Why Add-in Express Regions for Outlook?
Advanced Outlook view and form regions
Add-in Express provides Outlook developers with an innovative, truly unique technology of Advanced Outlook View and Form Regions. In summary, your advanced regions:
- Work on all Outlook versions from 2003 to 2019.
- Can be embedded into any Outlook Explorer and Inspector windows.
- Can be added to the Navigation pane, Folder view pane, Reading pane, To-Do bar, task pane docks and Outlook forms.
- Multiple regions can be shared and easily switched between.
- Can be resized, hidden or minimized by users; you can completely control their state.
- Can be dragged between docks; you can disable this ability completely or specify the supported docking locations.
- Can be bound to specific Outlook folders, content or context.
WebViewPane regions
You can replace the content of any Outlook views with your custom .NET form
using the WebViewPane region. For example, you can provide your end-users with a feature-rich summary page based on your custom
.NET form like Outlook Today does or even better.
When designing your custom Outlook forms, please keep in mind that this region shows its header automatically if it contains several embedded forms.
FolderView regions
Sometimes you need to provide the end-user with an alternative view of some folder, preserving the main view as well.
Then you can use the FolderView region and add your custom form to any specific Outlook folder.
In this case, the end-user can switch to your form using the navigation buttons on the header region.
These work equally well for the following folder types - Mail, Contacts and Tasks. Outlook folder view
regions are very useful when you want to provide the user with an alternative view of a folder,
yet still preserve the main view.
Outlook Reading pane regions
With native Microsoft Outlook form regions you would be limited to customizing only one area at the bottom of the Reading pane.
With Add-in Express advanced regions, you can customize four areas of the Reading pane (Preview pane in Outlook 2000 and 2002)
and completely replace the Reading pane so that only your custom form is displayed with the Reading pane region.
Outlook To-Do Bar regions
As you probably know it is not possible to customize the To-Do Bar with your custom form using the standard Microsoft form regions.
Fortunately, Add-in Express Outlook View Regions do allow developers to host Windows Forms in the To-Do bar, which
is a great location for presenting summary data or invoking actions for your Outlook solutions.
Outlook Navigation pane regions
Probably one of the most useful places to add a view region in the main Outlook window is right underneath the Navigation Pane,
which is usually always displayed. For example, here you can create a navigation-specific region where you can display
your own set of shortcuts or show a special Outlook view selector, or even display folder specific information.
Complete replacement for Outlook Inspector
With Advanced Regions you can completely replace all pages of any Outlook Inspector window. The standard Replace All Form Region types were introduced in Outlook 2007 and supported in subsequent Outlook versions, but are still not supported for Outlook 2003 and lower.
Add-in Express Regions, however, do support all Outlook versions and are very easy to implement.
You can bind your replace all regions to specific folders, inspector types, message classes or inspector modes (read and/or compose).
On-demand form regions
Add-in Express provides a new kind of region: on-demand regions. This region type allows you to embed your forms under
all pages of the Inspector window and the user can display them whenever they want to.
Like all other advanced Outlook regions based on Add-in Express, on-demand Outlook form regions can be bound to specific folders,
inspector types, message classes or inspector modes.
System requirements
Supported Outlook versions
- Microsoft Outlook 2003
- Microsoft Outlook 2007
- Microsoft Outlook 2010 (x86 and x64)
- Microsoft Outlook 2013 (x86 and x64)
- Microsoft Outlook 2016 (x86 and x64)
- Microsoft Outlook 2019 (x86 and x64)
- All Outlook service packs and updates are supported
Supported Visual Studio versions
- Visual Studio 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2017, 2019
- Requires VSTO installed
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