VBScript in a Nutshell

Chapter 6. Programming Outlook Forms

Until the release of Microsoft Office 2000, Microsoft Outlook was clearly an idiosyncratic member of the Office suite. First released in Office 97 and later released in an interim version as Outlook 98, Outlook was the sole member of the Office family to feature VBScript as its programming language. Outlook 2000 finally features support for VBA and for the VBA integrated development environment. However, VBScript remains in Outlook 2000 as the programming language behind Outlook’s custom forms.

Designing and programming Outlook forms is a large topic that has been the sole focus of a number of books, most notably Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook, published by Microsoft Press and available in various editions covering different versions of Outlook. Our focus in this chapter will not be on designing, creating, or modifying Outlook forms, but rather on programming those forms with VBScript.

Why Program Outlook Forms?

As a general purpose personal information management system (or PIM), Microsoft Outlook includes most of the general features that an individual or a group must perform, including such tasks as reading, sending, and organizing email, scheduling meetings, keeping notes, and maintaining a contacts list. The emphasis here, though, is on general; Outlook offers the basic set of features that most users require. In order to make Outlook capable of addressing the particular needs of individual users or groups of users, Microsoft ...