Ask to Ribbons

[ChristianH]

Hi,

I have three VB6 COMAddIns for Microsoft Outlook. I know that I can create

in OL2010 a Ribbon for the OL-MainFrame.

In older OL versions I had created one commandBar per COMAddIn.

Unloading the COMAddIn I removed the commandBar from the inspectors.

Well, is it possible, that I only have one Ribbon?

Each VB6COMAddIn checks if the Ribbon already exists (created by one of the

other COMAddIns) and extends if with its specific buttons.

Is this possible?

Christian

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

Yes, that can be done, but it's a bit messy.

First of all, I don't know how you're handling the ribbon interfaces from

VB6, but if your addin is developed using Outlook 2003 or earlier and you're

using the XLIRibbonExtensibility tlb to provide the interfaces you can

extend them using the same methods used originally to produce the tlb. See

http://xldennis.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/using-iribbonextensibilitys-type-library-with-com-add-ins/

for information on that.

Basically what you do is create a shared namespace (xmlns) and use idQ

across your addins to add to the ribbon from any of them. There's a lot on

this, from MS and various other articles and blogs, so the best thing is to

probably do a Google search on "ribbon idq" and start browsing that

information. I've never done it for Outlook addins, but I have helped

XL-Dennis, the author of that article I pointed you to, do them in Excel COM

addins so I know it works.

"ChristianH" <ChristianH> wrote in message

news:A099C1E0-B75F-41E2-A6FA-E6155D93F2DF@microsoft.com...
> Hi,

> I have three VB6 COMAddIns for Microsoft Outlook. I know that I can create
> in OL2010 a Ribbon for the OL-MainFrame.
> In older OL versions I had created one commandBar per COMAddIn.
> Unloading the COMAddIn I removed the commandBar from the inspectors.
> Well, is it possible, that I only have one Ribbon?
> Each VB6COMAddIn checks if the Ribbon already exists (created by one of
> the
> other COMAddIns) and extends if with its specific buttons.
> Is this possible?
> Christian

 

[ChristianH]

Hi Ken,

thanks for the information and your help.

Christian
wrote:


> Yes, that can be done, but it's a bit messy.

> First of all, I don't know how you're handling the ribbon interfaces from
> VB6, but if your addin is developed using Outlook 2003 or earlier and you're
> using the XLIRibbonExtensibility tlb to provide the interfaces you can
> extend them using the same methods used originally to produce the tlb. See
> http://xldennis.wordpress.com/2006/12/22/using-iribbonextensibilitys-type-library-with-com-add-ins/
> for information on that.

> Basically what you do is create a shared namespace (xmlns) and use idQ
> across your addins to add to the ribbon from any of them. There's a lot on
> this, from MS and various other articles and blogs, so the best thing is to
> probably do a Google search on "ribbon idq" and start browsing that
> information. I've never done it for Outlook addins, but I have helped
> XL-Dennis, the author of that article I pointed you to, do them in Excel COM
> addins so I know it works.

> >

>

> "ChristianH" <ChristianH> wrote in message
> news:A099C1E0-B75F-41E2-A6FA-E6155D93F2DF@microsoft.com...
> > Hi,
> > I have three VB6 COMAddIns for Microsoft Outlook. I know that I can create
> > in OL2010 a Ribbon for the OL-MainFrame.
> > In older OL versions I had created one commandBar per COMAddIn.
> > Unloading the COMAddIn I removed the commandBar from the inspectors.
> > Well, is it possible, that I only have one Ribbon?
> > Each VB6COMAddIn checks if the Ribbon already exists (created by one of
> > the
> > other COMAddIns) and extends if with its specific buttons.
> > Is this possible?
> > Christian

> .
>