Multiple Outlook Add-ink Panes Displaying at the Same Time - outlook-addin

We have developed an Outlook web Add-in but currently when the task pane is open and we open another outlook add-in, our one closes and is replaced with the last selected one. Is there a way to have the task panes stack next to one another so that you can have more than one task pane open at the same time. Appreciate that screen real-estate is an issue but at least 2 would be nice. I thought that I had seen this working somewhere.

Currently there is no way to have two add-ins open side-by-side. We track Outlook add-in feature requests on our user-voice page. Please add your request there. Feature requests on user-voice are considered, when we go through our planning process.
You can make your add-in pinnable, this way your add-in will not be closed when another add-in is opened.

Related

VB.net - Form won't show

My problem concern an application which is currently running in production since 6 months. But last week, one user reported me this :
Above all, this application is a complement to Outlook, which allows users to create, edit and delete tickets through a new tab in the ribbon.
When this user clicks on a button (Create), a window is supposed to appear. In my code, this window is used in two places, one to create the ticket and the other to edit the ticket. When the user wants to edit a ticket, this window appears without problem. But just to create, he won't appear.
I call the window like this for creating :
Dim oForm1 As Create_form
oForm1 = New Create_form(Nothing)
oForm1.Show()
And like this for editing :
Dim oForm1 As Create_form
oForm1 = New Create_form(ticket)
oForm1.Show()
And here is the constructor :
Public Sub New(ticket As Ticket)
InitializeComponent()
MaximizeBox = False
actualTicket = ticket
Init_List()
Init_Fields()
End Sub
I have looked for solutions on the Internet, but it seems I am the only one with this problem. This code worked for this person until last week without any change.
One possibility I thought about is the Microsoft redistributable and the Outlook version (Developed and tested on Outlook 2016, used on Outlook 2013...).
Any ideas ?
Thanks for your help !
Ps : Please excuse my more than average English
First of all, make sure your add-in is enabled and running in Outlook.
Microsoft Office applications can disable VSTO Add-ins that behave unexpectedly. If an application does not load your VSTO Add-in, the application might have hard disabled or soft disabled your VSTO Add-in.
Hard disabling can occur when a VSTO Add-in causes the application to close unexpectedly. It might also occur on your development computer if you stop the debugger while the Startup event handler in your VSTO Add-in is executing.
Soft disabling can occur when a VSTO Add-in produces an error that does not cause the application to unexpectedly close. For example, an application might soft disable a VSTO Add-in if it throws an unhandled exception while the Startup event handler is executing.
When you re-enable a soft-disabled VSTO Add-in, the application immediately attempts to load the VSTO Add-in. If the problem that initially caused the application to soft disable the VSTO Add-in has not been fixed, the application will soft disable the VSTO Add-in again. Read more about that in the How to: Re-enable a VSTO Add-in that has been disabled article.
Most probably the form is displayed behind the Outlook window. To show a form on top of the Outlook window you need to specify the parent window handle. In .net based applications or add-ins you typically use Windows forms classes to show a window. The Show and ShowDialog methods of the System.Windows.Forms.Form class accept an instance of the IWin32Window interface which stands for the parent window handle. See How to set the Window.Owner to Outlook window for more information.
Finally I found the solution, for the creation of one ticket, I'm using the system date with a specific function. But, the user who have the problem change the default setting in the Windows configuration. So the form could not be displayed due to an unmanaged exception (English date when the software expect French date).

Resume Opening Workbook After Addin Interrupts

I've written an Excel addin that periodically checks a remote repository for data updates, including a check when the addin loads at Excel start up (during the addin's Workbook_Open event). If new respository data is detected, the addin asks the user for permission to proceed with the update. If the user clicks "yes", the addin successfully updates itself and everything is happy... except...
If Excel is not already running and the user selects an Excel file to open (e.g. via double-click in Windows), this sequence of events occurs and everything works, but the user-requested file opening is interrupted and not re-engaged. The Excel app is running, but with no workbook loaded (the workbook area is an empty frame).
I believe I have two options, neither of which I know how to accomplish:
Prevent the addin from completing its update check until the user-selected file has completed its open sequence and is fully loaded, or
Allow the addin to update itself and then somehow re-engage the user-selected file to complete the file open/load.
I have not been able to discover the filename/path of the user-requested file, so my addin isn't able to direct that file to be loaded.
My current workaround is a MsgBox telling the user to close Excel and re-open the selected file. Ideally, the addin update should occur and the original action should complete without requiring user intervention.
(Building on Option 1, I could start a delay timer for the addin to check for updates XX number of seconds after Excel starts, but this seems kludgy to me.)
Any guidance or ideas are appreciated. My interwebz searches aren't hitting the right combination of keywords for the exact scenario.
Instead of opening the new addin update file immediately you can use OnTime to delay it which should allow the other file to open successfully. See here: Process for updating Excel add-in?
In the answer you'll also see a reference to this package here which does everything you need. Autoupdates are hard so I would recommend going with someone else's solution.
http://www.decisionmodels.com/downloads.htm#addload
(Scroll down to Add-In Loader Version 2)

How to close add-in pane in outlook Mail App read scenario through JavaScript Api (office.js)

I have developed a Mail App (Read Scenario) Add-in for Outlook365. After certain task performed I would like to see add-in pane collapse automatically. Is there any method defined yet in office.js API to do so?
If you are talking about Outlook Online(outlook as a web app), then I am afraid there's no method defined yet in Office.js to collapse the task pane yet. But I agree it is an important scenario and we will absolutely add it to our backlog.
Thanks,
Sky

Excel custom Add-In not loading when instance of Excel is opened by another application

I have created a custom add-in for Excel and for the most this work fine without any issues.
However, we have a 3rd party application where we can select the option to "Open In Excel". This then loads a new instance of Microsoft Excel with a load of data populated from the application, but does not load the custom add-in.
If I go in to the add-ins option, I can see that Excel still seems to think that the add-in is enabled but I can see that it is not because the macros are not imported to workbook.
I can disable and then re-enable the add-in and it will work just fine. I can also open an Excel document or a new instance manually and it will work as expected. It only ever seems to be an issue when the instance of Excel is opened from this 3rd party application.
I assume that this is because the add-in is bound to my account and the process is being started by another account even though task manager sees it as being a process ran by myself.
If anyone has any ideas as to why this is happening or how to resolve it, I would be very grateful to hear.

VBA when user clicks Send as Attachement

My company has an issue with Outlook when it is triggered to open by Excel that causes Outlook to hang indefinitely when loading (an issue which cannot be easily fixed). We have a few workbooks with custom ribbons where we now check that Outlook is open first before allowing the user to send via email. The problem is that this doesn't account for users that still use the File > Save & Send > Send as Attachment.
I would like to know if anybody knows about a process by which I can add on a routine to the existing button that we could save as an Excel Add In on everyone's Excel that checks first if Outlook is open? I have the Outlook check written so I'm just needing help with finding a way to run it.
Any help is appreciated.
Alternatively you could disable Send as Attachment.
I wouldn't know what is important so I won't copy parts here.
How do you disable “Save and send” in Excel 2010 (in the File ribbon (called backstage in Office 2010)?
Disable the Send button in the Office Menu
You may consider repurposing the ribbon controls. See Temporarily Repurpose Commands on the Office Fluent Ribbon for more information.
Unfortunately the Backstage UI doesn't allow to repurpose controls from the XML markup. You may consider hiding the built-in UI and rebuilding it fully with custom commands. Thus, you will be able to handle the commands on your own. You can read more about that in the Introduction to the Office 2010 Backstage View for Developers article. Also see the Customizing the Office 2010 Backstage View for Developers article.