Professional Outlook® 2007 Programming

Chapter 9. Real-World Outlook Programming

In this chapter, you learn about real-world Outlook programming and how to make the best use of Outlook code to support multiple versions of Outlook. You also learn about coding to work around known problems for Outlook developers, how to deploy managed code addins, and how to use different APIs, such as Redemption, to accomplish tasks that still can't be accomplished using the Outlook object model. The tricks and tips presented in this chapter are things I've learned and discovered in my years of Outlook programming and should be helpful in your Outlook coding projects.

Supporting Multiple Versions of Outlook

Microsoft would like everyone to only use the latest versions of their software, but in the real world people run older versions of their software for as long as they can. Most people don't upgrade to the latest version of software such as Outlook until they get a new computer, and sometimes not even then. I've seen questions about running Outlook 2000 on Windows Vista, certainly a mismatch between a seven-year-old version of Outlook and the newest version of Windows.

When writing an Outlook addin, one problem is deciding what Outlook versions to support. If you support versions from Outlook 2000 on, the first version to support COM addins, you increase possible market share for your addin. If you only support Outlook 2007, you have a much smaller potential market for your addin, but there's no need for maintaining code compatibility ...