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How to: Add Custom Menus and Menu Items to Outlook

Visual Studio 2010

Updated: May 2011

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.

Applies to: The information in this topic applies to application-level projects for Outlook 2007. For more information, see Features Available by Office Application and Project Type.

link to video For a related video demonstration, see How Do I: Customize Outlook Item Context Menus?.

Example

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private Office.CommandBar menuBar;
private Office.CommandBarPopup newMenuBar;
private Office.CommandBarButton buttonOne;

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

private void AddMenuBar()
{
    try
    {
        menuBar = this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.ActiveMenuBar;
        newMenuBar = (Office.CommandBarPopup)menuBar.Controls.Add(
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlPopup, missing,
            missing, missing, true);
        if (newMenuBar != null)
        {
            newMenuBar.Caption = "New Menu";
            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)
    {
        System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show(ex.Message);
    }
}

private void buttonOne_Click(Office.CommandBarButton ctrl,
    ref bool cancel)
{
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("You clicked: " + ctrl.Caption,
        "Custom Menu", System.Windows.Forms.MessageBoxButtons.OK);
}

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.