Can Outlook do this?

[Guest]

Can Outlook be modified through the use of VBA to add one or two entries to
the Navigation Pane. These additions would be a timesheet and a project
navigator, and I would also like to modify the way in which tasks are used.
I am currently trying to begin understanding Visual Studio to construct this
as a stand-alone app when it occurred to me that it would be better suited to
run from within Outlook.

Should I switch gears and begin studying VBA in Outlook or is this an
impossibility?

TIA
Jeffrey

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

You can't do what you want with the Navigation pane. You need new specs.

You are almost always better off running in-process with Outlook, either in
the Outlook VBA for personal code or a COM addin for code to be distributed.
Unless your code has to run standalone there is no advantage to running it
in a separate process.

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your response.

So are you saying that I should or should not attempt this? Your first line
says that I cannot add entries to the navigation pane while the rest explains
that it is better to run from within Outlook. What is it meant that I 'need
new specs'?

Please excuse my ignorance if these are well known programming terms. I am
quite new to all of this.

Thanks again,
Jeffrey

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

I'm saying forget about trying to do anything with the Navigation Pane at
all.

The second paragraph was an answer to what I thought you were asking about
coding for Outlook. In general it's always better to run within Outlook
(Outlook VBA or a COM addin) than outside of Outlook in a standalone
program. However each circumstance determines how your code should be
written.