Outlook 2013 VBA How to Display Modeless Dialog Box - vba

Question

I have VBA code that runs every time a new email message is received. It has several processing steps including creating excel spreadsheets, so can take a minute or two to execute.
I would like to display a modeless dialog box that shows updated status messages as processing of the email progresses. I created a UserForm1, but can't figure out how to instantiate it from the VBA code.

Answer 1

Like so:
Dim uf As UserForm1
Set uf = New UserForm1
uf.Show False
However, this is not a good practice as a notification should be modal. Maybe you want SystemModal (in front of ALL windows) instead of ApplicationModal (in front of Application)? The VBA MsgBox can be quite customized actually so check out this post here to learn more on how to customize a MsgBox.
To make a Window TopMost
If you want your Form window to be TopMost try this:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/kb/184297
Option Explicit
Public Const SWP_NOMOVE = 2
Public Const SWP_NOSIZE = 1
Public Const FLAGS = SWP_NOMOVE Or SWP_NOSIZE
Public Const HWND_TOPMOST = -1
Public Const HWND_NOTOPMOST = -2
Declare Function SetWindowPos Lib "user32" Alias "SetWindowPos" _
(ByVal hwnd As Long, _
ByVal hWndInsertAfter As Long, _
ByVal x As Long, _
ByVal y As Long, _
ByVal cx As Long, _
ByVal cy As Long, _
ByVal wFlags As Long ) As Long
Public Function SetTopMostWindow(hwnd As Long, Topmost As Boolean) _
As Long
If Topmost = True Then 'Make the window topmost
SetTopMostWindow = SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_TOPMOST, 0, 0, 0, _
0, FLAGS)
Else
SetTopMostWindow = SetWindowPos(hwnd, HWND_NOTOPMOST, 0, 0, _
0, 0,FLAGS)
SetTopMostWindow = False
End If
End Function
To use this on your form:
res = SetTopMostWindow(uf.hwnd, True)

Answer 2

Final version of the test code after receiving info from #AnalystCave.com follows. Still working on how to force the userform to stay on top of the other windows.
Public Sub TestForm()
Dim uf As UserForm1
Set uf = New UserForm1
Load uf
uf.Show vbModeless
uf.msgStatus.Text = "11111111111111111"
uf.msgStatus.Text = "22222222222222222"
uf.msgStatus.Text = "33333333333333333"
uf.Hide
Unload uf
End Sub
In my particular application, what appears on the desktop is predictable. In this case, one way to solve the problem is:
''' execute something that you know will show on top of the userform then
uf.Show vbModeless ' this will put the userform back on top