How to: Maintain Position Information for Custom Toolbars between Outlook Sessions

This example demonstrates one possible way to save and restore the position of an Outlook custom toolbar. The code creates a toolbar and saves its position in a user settings file when the user exits Outlook. Restarting Outlook recreates the toolbar and sets its position based on the saved settings.

Example

Dim commandBar As Office.CommandBar
Dim WithEvents button As Office.CommandBarButton

Const TOOLBARNAME As String = "ExampleBar" 
Const REGROOT As String = "Software\YourCompany\YourApp" 

Dim WithEvents explorerEvents As Outlook.ExplorerEvents_Event
Dim explorer As Outlook.Explorer

Private Sub ThisAddIn_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, _
    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
    explorer = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer()

    If (explorer IsNot Nothing) Then

        commandBar = Me.Application.ActiveExplorer.CommandBars.Add( _
            TOOLBARNAME, _
            Office.MsoBarPosition.msoBarFloating, _
            False, _
            True)

        button = TryCast(commandBar.Controls.Add( _
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton, _
            System.Type.Missing, System.Type.Missing, _
                1, True), Office.CommandBarButton)

        button.Style = _
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption
        button.Caption = "Button 1"
        button.Tag = "newButton"

        LoadCommandBarSettings()

    End If 
End Sub 

Private Sub SaveCommandBarSettings()
    MySettings.Default("CommandBarTop") = commandBar.Top
    MySettings.Default("CommandBarLeft") = commandBar.Left
    MySettings.Default("CommandBarVisible") = commandBar.Visible
    MySettings.Default("CommandBarPosition") = CInt(commandBar.Position)
    MySettings.Default("CommandBarRowIndex") = commandBar.RowIndex
    MySettings.Default.Save()
End Sub 

Private Sub LoadCommandBarSettings()
    Dim position As Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarPosition = _
        CType(MySettings.Default("CommandBarPosition"),  _
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarPosition)

    Dim rowIndex As Integer = _
        CInt(MySettings.Default("CommandBarRowIndex"))

    commandBar.RowIndex = rowIndex

    Dim top As Integer = _
        CInt(MySettings.Default("CommandBarTop"))

    commandBar.Top = _
        CInt(IIf(top <> 0, top, _
        System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Height / 2))

    Dim left As Integer = _
        CInt(MySettings.Default("CommandBarLeft"))

    commandBar.Left = _
        CInt(IIf(left <> 0, left, _
        System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.Bounds.Width / 2))

    Dim visible As Boolean = _
        CBool(MySettings.Default("CommandBarVisible"))

    commandBar.Visible = visible

End Sub 

Private Sub Click(ByVal ctrl As  _
    Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarButton, _
    ByRef cancelDefault As Boolean) Handles Button.Click
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Hello World!")
End Sub 

Sub ThisAddIn_Close() Handles explorerEvents.Close

    SaveCommandBarSettings()
End Sub

Office.CommandBar commandBar;
Office.CommandBarButton button;

private const string TOOLBARNAME = "ExampleBar";
private Outlook.Explorer explorer;

private void ThisAddIn_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    explorer = this.Application.ActiveExplorer();

    ((Outlook.ExplorerEvents_Event)explorer).Close += 
        new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.ExplorerEvents_CloseEventHandler(ThisAddIn_Close);

    if (explorer != null)
    {
        commandBar = this.Application.ActiveExplorer().CommandBars.Add(TOOLBARNAME,
            Office.MsoBarPosition.msoBarFloating, false, true);

        button = commandBar.Controls.Add(
            Office.MsoControlType.msoControlButton,
            System.Type.Missing, System.Type.Missing,
            1, true) as Office.CommandBarButton;

        button.Style =
            Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoButtonStyle.msoButtonCaption;
        button.Caption = "Button 1";
        button.Tag = "newButton";

        button.Click += new Microsoft.Office.Core.
            _CommandBarButtonEvents_ClickEventHandler(button_Click);

        LoadCommandBarSettings();
    }
}

private void LoadCommandBarSettings()
{
    Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarPosition position =
       (Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoBarPosition)Properties.Settings
       .Default["CommandBarPosition"];

    commandBar.Position = position;

    int rowIndex =
        Convert.ToInt32(
        Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarRowIndex"]);

    commandBar.RowIndex = rowIndex;

    int top =
        Convert.ToInt32(
        Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarTop"]);

    commandBar.Top =
        top != 0 ? top : System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.
        Bounds.Height / 2;

    int left =
        Convert.ToInt32(
        Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarLeft"]);

    commandBar.Left =
        left != 0 ? left : System.Windows.Forms.Screen.PrimaryScreen.
        Bounds.Width / 2;

    bool visible = Convert.ToBoolean(
        Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarVisible"]);

    commandBar.Visible = visible;
}

private void SaveCommandBarSettings()
{
    Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarTop"] = commandBar.Top;
    Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarLeft"] = commandBar.Left;
    Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarVisible"] =
        commandBar.Visible;
    Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarPosition"] =
        (int)commandBar.Position;
    Properties.Settings.Default["CommandBarRowIndex"] =
        commandBar.RowIndex;
    Properties.Settings.Default.Save();
}

void button_Click(Microsoft.Office.Core.CommandBarButton Ctrl,
    ref bool CancelDefault)
{
    System.Windows.Forms.MessageBox.Show("Hello world!");
}

void ThisAddIn_Close()
{
    SaveCommandBarSettings();
}

Compiling the Code

This example requires:

• Five user settings. Double-click the Settings.settings icon in the project’s Properties (in C#) or My Project (in Visual Basic) folder and add the following user-scoped properties:

  • CommandBarTop, type int, default value = 0

  • CommandBarLeft, type int, default value = 0

  • CommandBarVisible, type boolean, default value = true

  • CommandBarPosition, type int, default value = 4

  • CommandBarRowIndex, type int, default value = 1

See Also

Tasks

How to: Create Office Toolbars Programmatically

How to: Create Office Menus Programmatically

Concepts

Outlook Object Model Overview

Office UI Customization

Creating Office Solutions in Visual Studio