Custom Ribbon in VSTO Addin for Outlook 2010 doesn't display

13
votes

I've got a minimal VSTO Addin for Outlook 2010 with a ribbon. My only goal is to display a ribbon (created via designer) with no functionality. From what little I can tell from MSDN ribbons should just automatically be displayed by default, perhaps with tweaking ControlIdType/CustomId properties for tabs.

Alas, tweaking these properties does nothing -- Outlook loads and displays no tab. A simple message box displayed in the ribbon loader reveals it never is triggered. Additionally, I haven't seen any information resources (tutorials, walkthroughs, overviews, etc..) that say anything about needing to manually tell Outlook to display tabs.

  1. How do I get the tabs displayed?
  2. Is there a good resource other than MSDN that's good for VSTO newbies?
2
c#outlookvstoribbon
The VSTO walk-thru that creates 'your first custom ribbon' for Excel 2013 produces this same problem - tab doesn't display. msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb386104.aspx – justSteve

2 Answers

39
votes

To get your ribbon displayed, on the base ribbon in your code change the RibbonType property to be Microsoft.Outlook.Explorer.

2
votes

What fixed it for me (without starting a new project), in the Ribbon1.vb ribbon design, I clicked on the the Ribbon1 name above the ribbons 'File' button, in the properties pane, clicked on tabs (collection), under the heading 'Design' I changed the name (from Tab1) to something else.

Clicked ok, tested by clicking F5 and it worked. Hope this helps someone else.