In this short article, I will discuss a simple operation that requires using the ActiveX control Microsoft Office Outlook View Control. With this control, we can read, reply, deleted, etc, emails in Excel straight from Outlook.

The first step requires you creating your new project as follows:

1.    File --> New Project
2.    Project Types --> Office 2007
3.    Excel 2007 Workbook

With that created, add an Actions Pane control to the project as follows:

1.  Project menu
2.  Add User Control
3. Actions Pane Control

Change the name of the Actions Pane Control to clsActionsPane.

With that done, right-click somewhere in the VSTO Toolbox and from the popup menu you should select Choose Items… as shown in the image below:

Figure 1: Opening the “Choose Toolbox Items” dialog box

A new window will open where you will be able to select Microsoft Office Outlook View Control from the list.

Figure 2: “Choose Toolbox Items” dialog box

Once you have selected the Microsoft Office Outlook View Control, click OK to continue. The references will be added as well as the control will now be visible in the VSTO Toolbox as shown in the image that follows:

Figure 3: Microsoft Office Outlook View Control

Now, add three control buttons to the Actions Pane as well as the Microsoft Office Outlook View Control. Your project should now look like this:

Figure 4: Actions Pane setup

The command buttons should be named as follows:

1.  btnSentItems
2.  btnInbox
3.  btnDeletedItems

As for the label (text) of the button, use the name for the respective folders in Outlook (as viewed in the previous image).

we are now ready to add the code. First, we will add code to ThisWorkbook class so that we can add the Actions Pane. This is done as follows:

Public Class ThisWorkbook
    Private oActionPane As New clsActionsPane
    Private Sub ThisWorkbook_Startup( _
                    ByVal sender As Object, _
                    ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
                    Handles Me.Startup
        Me.ActionsPane.Controls.Add(oActionPane)
    End Sub
End Class

Next, add the code to the Actions Pane classe:

Public Class clsActionsPane
    'Change view to "Sent Items"
    Private Sub btnSentItems_Click(ByVal sender _
                                   As System.Object, ByVal e _
                                   As System.EventArgs) _
                                   Handles btnSentItems.Click
        Me.clsViewControl.Folder = Me.btnSentItems.Text
    End Sub

    'Change view to "Inbox"
    Private Sub btnInbox_Click(ByVal sender _
                                   As System.Object, ByVal e _
                                   As System.EventArgs) _
                                   Handles btnInbox.Click
        Me.clsViewControl.Folder = Me.btnInbox.Text
    End Sub

    'Change view to "Deleted Items"
    Private Sub btnDeletedItems_Click(ByVal sender _
                                      As System.Object, ByVal e _
                                      As System.EventArgs) Handles _
                                      btnDeletedItems.Click
        Me.clsViewControl.Folder = Me.btnDeletedItems.Text
    End Sub
End Class

You can now execute your project. Once loaded, you can use the buttons to change the current folder. Right-clicking on an item in any of the boxes will give you the same option you’d get in Outlook’s own window:

Figure 5: Compiled Actions Pane containing the Microsoft Office Outlook View Control