Can I use Visual Designer output without using xml while creating my addin?

1
votes

I'm trying to create an Outlook 2010 Add-in with Visual Studio. Is it possible to use the ribbon Visual Designer output directly in your add-in, or do you have to export it to xml first? All the examples I could find exported the design to xml. If you can use the Visual Designer files directly in your solution, how do you do this?

2
outlookvstoadd-in
Have you tried to use the Visual Designer? If so, what problems have you run into? – Peter Majeed
Yes. But the ribbon simply doesn't appear when I run the project. If I export to XML it works fine. – Craig Schwarze
Because Outlook 2010 has a whole bunch of ribbons (one for mail read, another for mail compose, another for the explorer, etc.), you have to specify the RibbonType of the ribbon you're making. It defaults to the mail read ribbon, so I'm betting if you open a received mail item, you'll see your ribbon there. – Peter Majeed
I'll check it out Peter - thanks – Craig Schwarze
Ah, you are exactly right Peter. Please post that up as an answer so I can tick you as the solution – Craig Schwarze

2 Answers

1
votes

Because Outlook 2010 has a whole bunch of ribbons (one for mail read, another for mail compose, another for the explorer, etc.), you have to specify the RibbonType of the ribbon you're making. It defaults to the mail read ribbon, so I'm betting if you open a received mail item, you'll see your ribbon there.

1
votes

You can use any approach either Ribbon XML or Ribbon Designer. If you are using Ribbon XMl dont forget to override CreateRibbonExtensibilityObject method in your ThisAddin class.

I think Ribbon Designer was available from Office 2007 (VS2008).