How to: Add Custom Menus and Menu Items to Outlook

Applies to
The information in this topic applies only to the specified Visual Studio Tools for Office projects and versions of Microsoft Office. Project type Application-level projects Microsoft Office version Outlook 2003 Outlook 2007 For more information, see Features Available by Application and Project Type.

This example creates a menu in Microsoft Office Outlook. The menu, which contains one item, appears at the top of the application. When you click the menu item, the code displays a message that shows the menu item caption.

For a related video demonstration, see How Do I: Add a Custom Menu Item to Outlook 2007?, and How Do I: Customize Outlook Item Context Menus?.

Example

Private menuBar As Office.CommandBar
Private newMenuBar As Office.CommandBarPopup
Private buttonOne As Office.CommandBarButton
Private menuTag As String = "A unique tag" 

Private Sub ThisApplication_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e _
    As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
    RemoveMenubar()
    AddMenuBar()
End Sub 

Private Sub AddMenuBar()
    Try
        menuBar = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar
        newMenuBar = menuBar.Controls.Add( _
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, _
            Temporary:=False)
        If newMenuBar IsNot Nothing Then
            newMenuBar.Caption = "New Menu"
            newMenuBar.Tag = menuTag
            buttonOne = newMenuBar.Controls.Add( _
                Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, _
                Before:=1, Temporary:=True)

            With buttonOne
                .Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonIconAndCaption
                .Caption = "Button One"
                .FaceId = 65
                .Tag = "c123" 
            End With 

            AddHandler buttonOne.Click, AddressOf ButtonOne_Click
            newMenuBar.Visible = True 
        End If 
    Catch Ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message)
    End Try 
End Sub 

Public Sub ButtonOne_Click(ByVal buttonControl As Office. _
CommandBarButton, ByRef Cancel As Boolean)
    MessageBox.Show("You clicked: " & buttonControl.Caption, _
        "Custom Menu", MessageBoxButtons.OK)
End Sub 

Private Sub RemoveMenubar()
    Try 
        ' If the menu already exists, remove it. 
        Dim foundMenu As Office.CommandBarPopup = _
            Me.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar. _
            FindControl(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, _
            System.Type.Missing, menuTag, True, True)
        If foundMenu IsNot Nothing Then
            foundMenu.Delete(True)
        End If 
    Catch Ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(Ex.Message)
    End Try 
End Sub

private Office.CommandBar menuBar;
private Office.CommandBarPopup newMenuBar;
private Office.CommandBarButton buttonOne;
private string menuTag = "A unique tag";

private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    RemoveMenubar();
    AddMenuBar();
}

private void AddMenuBar()
{
    try
    {
        menuBar = this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar;
        newMenuBar = (Office.CommandBarPopup)menuBar.Controls.Add(
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup,missing,
            missing, missing, false);
        if (newMenuBar != null)
        {
            newMenuBar.Caption = "New Menu";
            newMenuBar.Tag = menuTag;
            buttonOne = (Office.CommandBarButton)newMenuBar.Controls.
            Add(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, missing, 
                missing, 1, true);
            buttonOne.Style = Office.MsoButtonStyle.
                msoButtonIconAndCaption;
            buttonOne.Caption = "Button One";
            buttonOne.FaceId = 65;
            buttonOne.Tag = "c123";
            buttonOne.Click += new
                Office._CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(
                buttonOne_Click);
            newMenuBar.Visible = true;
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}

private void buttonOne_Click(Office.CommandBarButton ctrl,
    ref bool cancel)
{
    MessageBox.Show("You clicked: " + ctrl.Caption,
        "Custom Menu", MessageBoxButtons.OK);
}
private void RemoveMenubar()
{
    // If the menu already exists, remove it. 
    try
    {
        Office.CommandBarPopup foundMenu = (Office.CommandBarPopup)
            this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar.
            FindControl(Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup,
            missing, menuTag, true, true);
        if (foundMenu != null)
        {
            foundMenu.Delete(true);
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}

Robust Programming

Declare your command bar variables at the class level. If you declare them inside a method, they will go out of scope as soon as the method finishes running and the garbage collector will be able to reallocate the memory.

See Also

Tasks

How to: Add Custom Toolbars and Toolbar Items to Outlook

How to: Create Office Toolbars Programmatically

How to: Create Office Menus Programmatically

Concepts

Outlook Object Model Overview

Office UI Customization

Creating Office Solutions in Visual Studio