What would be the best approach to support multiple versions ofOutlook?

[willemsch]

Hi,

I was creating a VSTO add-in on visual studio 2005 (C#) for my office
2007 on my machine. It seemed all nice, but the n I tried to run the
setup on my other PC with Office 2003 and the install went OK, even my
added commandbar button showed, but as soon as I clicked a button, the
reference to the office 12 object library kicked in, and so the
program crashed, of course...

I would like to have my program available to office 2007 and office
2003, what would be the best method of getting this to happen?

Should I create two different VSTO projects, or just stick with COM
programming?

Please some advice, thanks

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

The rule of thumb is to develop on a machine with the oldest version you
want to support and to reference that PIA. Of course for Outlook 2007 that
means no Ribbon support if you develop on the Outlook/Office 2003 object
model, unless you use hacks that are completely unsupported by MS and the
VSTO team.

 

[willemsch]

Hi,

I downloaded your Attachment Options software. And this supports
multiple versions of outlook. How did you create this? Using VSTO? How
did you get it to work on multiple versions, did u use late binding
for connecting to outlook? What language/ide did u use to create this?

thanks

 

[Ken Slovak - [MVP - Outlook]]

That addin was written using VB6 and is developed and compiled on an
Office/Outlook 2000 virtual machine. I don't use any properties or methods
in that addin that aren't in the Outlook or Office 2000 object models.

All I had to do for support for later versions is maintain tables of what
attachment extensions are restricted in various versions and service packs
of Outlook.

I did have to add a manifest file for installation on Vista, but that has
nothing to do with Outlook.