custom image on buttons

Hi

I've created a little Outlook add-in (to be used in both XP and 2000)
that adds a custom toolbar in both Outlook Explorer and Inspector
windows. This toolbar consists of two custom buttons plus a combo.
I've done some research in the Outlook newsgroup and somehow get the
idea that we should add these custom toolbar/buttons/combo
temporarily. Am I correct?

I've learned from some MSDN KB articles to copy my own bitmaps to
these buttons using the clipboard. However, from the newsgroups I
know that we should not use bitmaps because of the transparency
issues.

Unfortunately, the MSDN KB 288771 seems very complicated to me. From
various posts of Dmitry Streblechenko, the steps to create bitmaps
from icons do not seem straightforward either (I'm a newbie and please
bear with me ). Therefore, should I do all that whenever I add a
custom button to Outlook? Should I change my add-in to add these
custom buttons permanently instead? If so, what sorts of problem will
I encounter?

I also appreciate if anyone can point me to any VC++ sample of how to
use custom icons on custom buttons.

Thank you very much!
Jenny