Start Microsoft Office Outlook 2007.

On the File menu, point to New, and then click Task.

Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Editor Options.

Click Popular and then select Show Developer Tab in the Ribbon.

Click OK.

Click the Microsoft Office Button, and then click Close.

On the Tools menu, point to Forms and then click Design a Form.

In the Design Form box, click Task and then click Open.

On the Developer tab, in the Design group, click Form Region and then New Form Region.

A new form region opens. If the Field Chooser does not appear, click Field Chooser in the Tools group.

Drag the Subject field from the Field Chooser to the form region.

In the Tools group, click Control Toolbox to open the Toolbox.

Drag a CommandButton control from the Toolbox to the form region.

Note
Steps in this walkthrough refer to the default names of these two controls.

On the Developer tab, in the Design group, click Form Region, and then click Save Form Region As. Name the form region TaskFormRegion and save it to your My Documents directory.

Exit Outlook 2007.

Start Visual Studio.

Create a Microsoft Outlook 2007 Add-in project with the name FormRegionAddIn. Make sure that you use the Outlook Add-in project template for the 2007 Microsoft Office system.

In the New Project dialog box, make sure that the Create directory for solution checkbox is selected.

Save the project to [%USERPROFILE%]\My Documents\Visual Studio 2005\Projects\FormRegionWalkthrough\.

For more information, see How to: Create Visual Studio Tools for Office Projects.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the FormRegionAddin project and then click Properties.

Click the Resources tab.

On the Resource Designer toolbar, point to Add Resource, click the arrow, and then click Add Existing File.

In the Add existing file to resources dialog box, browse to your My Documents directory, select TaskFormRegion.ofs and then click Open.

TaskFormRegion.ofs is added to the Resources directory in Solution Explorer.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the FormRegionAddin project and then click Add Reference.

The Add Reference dialog box appears.

On the COM page, select the Microsoft Forms 2.0 Object Library and then click OK.

In Solution Explorer, right-click the FormRegionAddin project, point to Add, and then click Class.

Change the name of the class to FormRegionHookup, and then click Add.

Add the following statements to the top of the FormRegionHookup.cs or FormRegionHookup.vb code file.

Imports System.Runtime.InteropServices
Imports Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook
Imports Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.Forms
Imports System.Windows.Forms

using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using Outlook = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook;
using Microsoft.Vbe.Interop.Forms;
using System.Windows.Forms;

Replace the definition of the FormRegionHookup class with the following code. This code implements the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup interface, and applies the ComVisibleAttribute, GuidAttribute, ProgIdAttribute, and ClassInterfaceAttribute attributes to the FormRegionHookup class.

<ComVisible(True), _
Guid("88F7BFBE-7666-4a0c-BCFD-2740E6625E04"), _
ProgId("FormRegionAddIn.FormRegionHookup"), _
ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)> _
Public Class FormRegionHookup
    Implements Outlook.FormRegionStartup

[ComVisible(true),
Guid("88F7BFBE-7666-4a0c-BCFD-2740E6625E04"),
ProgId("FormRegionAddIn.FormRegionHookup"),
ClassInterface(ClassInterfaceType.AutoDual)]
public class FormRegionHookup : Outlook.FormRegionStartup

Declare the following fields at the top of the FormRegionHookup class. You will map these fields to controls in the form region.

Private FormRegion As Outlook.FormRegion
Private userForm As UserForm
Private OlkTextBox1 As Outlook.OlkTextBox
Private WithEvents CommandButton1 As Outlook.OlkCommandButton

private Outlook.FormRegion FormRegion;
private UserForm UserForm;
private Outlook.OlkTextBox OlkTextBox1;
private Outlook.OlkCommandButton CommandButton1;

Add the following code to the FormRegionHookup class. This code implements the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup.GetFormRegionStorage method of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup interface and returns TaskFormRegion.ofs from the resource collection of the FormRegionAddin project.

Public Function GetFormRegionStorage( _
ByVal FormRegionName As String, _
ByVal Item As Object, _
ByVal LCID As Integer, _
ByVal FormRegionMode As Outlook.OlFormRegionMode, _
ByVal FormRegionSize As Outlook.OlFormRegionSize) As Object _
Implements Outlook.FormRegionStartup.GetFormRegionStorage
    Application.DoEvents()
    Select Case FormRegionName
        Case "TaskFormRegion"
            Dim ofsBytes As Byte()
            ofsBytes = My.Resources.TaskFormRegion
            Return ofsBytes
        Case Else
            Return Nothing
    End Select
End Function

public object GetFormRegionStorage(string FormRegionName, object Item, int LCID,
    Outlook.OlFormRegionMode FormRegionMode, Outlook.OlFormRegionSize FormRegionSize)
{
    Application.DoEvents();
    switch (FormRegionName)
    {
        case "TaskFormRegion":
            byte[] ofsBytes = Properties.Resources.TaskFormRegion;
            return ofsBytes;
        default:
            return null;
    }
}

Add the following code to the FormRegionHookup class. This code implements the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup.BeforeFormRegionShow method of the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup interface and maps the fields you defined in the FormRegionHookup class to controls on the form region. Outlook 2007 calls Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup.BeforeFormRegionShow and then displays the form region.

Public Sub BeforeFormRegionShow( _
ByVal FormRegion As Outlook.FormRegion) _
Implements Outlook.FormRegionStartup.BeforeFormRegionShow
    Me.FormRegion = FormRegion
    Me.userForm = FormRegion.Form

    Try
        OlkTextBox1 = userForm.Controls.Item("OlkTextBox1")
        CommandButton1 = userForm.Controls.Item("CommandButton1")
    Catch ex As Exception
        MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString())
    End Try
End Sub

public void BeforeFormRegionShow(Outlook.FormRegion FormRegion)
{
    this.FormRegion = FormRegion;
    this.UserForm = FormRegion.Form as UserForm;

    try
    {
        OlkTextBox1 = UserForm.Controls.Item("OlkTextBox1") as Outlook.OlkTextBox;
        CommandButton1 = UserForm.Controls.Item("CommandButton1") as Outlook.OlkCommandButton;
        CommandButton1.Click += new Outlook.OlkCommandButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(CommandButton1_Click);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        MessageBox.Show(ex.ToString());
    }
}

Add the following code to the FormRegionHookup class. This code overrides two methods in the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup interface. By default, Outlook does not call these methods and you will not add code to them in this walkthrough. However, you must override them to successfully compile the project.

Public Function GetFormRegionManifest( _
ByVal formRegionName As String, _
ByVal LCID As Integer) As Object _
Implements Outlook.FormRegionStartup.GetFormRegionManifest
    Throw New Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.")
End Function
Public Function GetFormRegionIcon( _
ByVal formRegionName As String, _
ByVal LCID As Integer, _
ByVal icon As Outlook.OlFormRegionIcon) As Object _
Implements Outlook.FormRegionStartup.GetFormRegionIcon
    Throw New Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.")
End Function

public object GetFormRegionManifest(string formRegionName, int LCID)
{
    throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
}

public object GetFormRegionIcon(string formRegionName, int LCID, Outlook.OlFormRegionIcon icon)
{
    throw new Exception("The method or operation is not implemented.");
}

Add the following code to the FormRegionHookup class. This code handles the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlkCommandButtonsEvent_Event.Click event of the ComandButton1 control and displays the contents of the form region text box.

Private Sub CommandButton1_Click() Handles CommandButton1.Click
    MessageBox.Show(OlkTextBox1.Text)
End Sub

void CommandButton1_Click()
{
    MessageBox.Show(OlkTextBox1.Text);
}

In Solution Explorer, expand FormRegionAddin, expand Outlook, right-click ThisAddin.cs or ThisAddin.vb, and then click View Code.

Add the following code to the ThisAddin class. This code overrides the RequestService method and returns a FormRegionHookup object. Outlook 2007 calls this method during startup.

Protected Overrides Function RequestService(ByVal serviceGuid As Guid) As Object
    If serviceGuid = GetType(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup).GUID Then
        Return New FormRegionHookup()
    Else
        Return MyBase.RequestService(serviceGuid)
    End If

End Function 'RequestService

protected override object RequestService(Guid serviceGuid)
{
    if (serviceGuid == typeof(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup).GUID)
    {
        return new FormRegionHookup();
    }      
    else
    {
        return base.RequestService(serviceGuid);
    }
}

In Solution Explorer, right-click FormRegionAddIn, point to Add, and then click New Item.

In the Add New Item dialog box, select XML file, name the file Manifest.xml, and click Add.

Replace the contents of Manifest.xml with the following XML.

Note
Outlook 2007 passes the value of the <name> element to the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.FormRegionStartup.GetFormRegionStorage method as the FormRegionName parameter.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<FormRegion xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/outlook/12/formregion.xsd">
  <name>TaskFormRegion</name>
  <title>Contoso</title>
  <formRegionType>separate</formRegionType>
  <showCompose>true</showCompose>
  <showRead>true</showRead>
  <showPreview>false</showPreview>
  <hidden>true</hidden>
  <addin>FormRegionAddIn</addin>
  <version>1.0</version>
</FormRegion>

In Solution Explorer, right-click Manifest.xml, and then click Properties.

In the Properties window, set the Copy to Output Directory property to Copy Always.

This makes sure that every build copies an updated version of the form region manifest to the output location.

Start Notepad and add the following text. TaskFormRegion is the location of the form region manifest.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\Outlook\FormRegions\IPM.Task]
"TaskFormRegion"="%USERPROFILE%\\My Documents\\Visual Studio 2005\\Projects\\FormRegionWalkthrough\\FormRegionAddIn\\FormRegionAddIn\\Manifest.xml"

On the File menu, click Save.

In the File name box, type FormRegion.reg.

Click the Save as type list, and then click All Files.

Choose a convenient location and click Save.

Double-click FormRegion.reg, click Yes, and then click OK.

This adds the information from FormRegion.reg to the registry. You can now delete this file, because you will not need it again.

Activate Visual Studio, and then press CTRL+F5.

Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 starts.

In Outlook, on the File menu, point to New, and then click Task.

In the Subject box, type a name for the task.

On the Task tab, in the Show group, click Contoso.

The custom form region appears.

Click CommandButton1.

Outlook displays the name of the task subject.