There is no way to show or hide an adjoining form region at run time. However, you can show and hide a custom task pane at run time. Therefore, if you need to give your users the ability to show and hide a UI panel in an Outlook item, consider using a custom task pane.
The following screen shot shows a custom task pane beneath an adjoining form region. They look very similar at first glance. However, there are a few differences in their behavior and in the way they are implemented - more on that in a moment.

Implementing a Custom Task Pane that Simulates an Adjoining Form Region
To make this work, you need to create a new instance of a custom task pane when each Inspector window opens. To do this, handle an event that is raised when the Inspector window is created, and then create the task pane in the event handler.
You should always create a user interface (UI) element, such as a button, that users can click to display or hide your custom task pane, because Microsoft Office applications do not provide a default way for users to show or hide custom task panes.
For a step-by-step walkthrough that shows you how to show and hide a custom task pane in an Outlook Inspector window by using a button on the Ribbon, see the following topic: Walkthrough: Displaying Custom Task Panes with E-Mail Messages in Outlook.
Adjoining form regions appear at the bottom of an Inspector window. Therefore, to make the custom task pane appear in the same position as an adjoining form region would appear, set the DockPosition property of the CustomTaskPane to msoCTPDockPositionBottom. The following code example shows this:
taskPane.DockPosition = Microsoft.Office.Core.MsoCTPDockPosition.msoCTPDockPositionBottom;

Considerations
You should only use a custom task pane in this way if you need to show and hide a panel of information in an Outlook Inspector at run time. If you do not have this requirement, it is much easier to use an adjoining form region.
The following table describes some of the differences between implementing an adjoining form region and using a custom task pane to simulate an adjoining form region:



Task
Custom Task Pane
Outlook Form Region

Adding native outlook controls
Not supported.
Supported.

Showing the UI for Inspectors that are in various display modes (for example: compose mode).
Requires custom code.
Does not require custom code.

Displaying the UI for different types of items (for example: Mail or Task.)
Requires custom code.
Does not require custom code.

Creating the UI when an Inspector opens and disposing the UI when the inspector closes.
Requires custom code.
Does not require custom code. This happens automatically.

Prevent the UI from appearing for derived message classes.
Requires custom code.
Does not require custom code. For more information, see Guidelines for Creating Outlook Form Regions.

Display the UI for all the pages of an Outlook item.
Does not require custom code. This happens automatically.
Not supported. Form regions only appear beneath the default page of an Outlook form.
Resources

To read more about custom task panes, see Custom Task Panes Overview.
For more information about how to create a form region, see How to: Add a Form Region to an Outlook Add-in Project.
To learn about the different ways you can customize the UI of a Microsoft Office application, see Office UI Customization Overview.
Norm E.

If you created a project for Microsoft Office 2007 using Visual Studio 2008 Beta 2, you will probably see a number of broken assembly references if you open the project in the final release of Visual Studio 2008. This is because most of the assemblies in the version of the VSTO runtime that is used for Microsoft Office 2007 projects were changed after Beta 2.
To fix the errors, replace any broken references to assemblies in the first column of the table below with a reference to the corresponding assembly name in the second column.





Beta 2 name

RTM name


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Common.dll

Microsoft.Office.Tools.Common.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Excel.dll

Microsoft.Office.Tools.Excel.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Outlook.dll

Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Word.dll

Microsoft.Office.Tools.Word.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.dll

Microsoft.Office.Tools.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.AddInBase.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Common.dll
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.dll

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.Runtime.v9.0.dll
(three assemblies from Beta 2 were merged into this one)


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument.dll

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Applications.ServerDocument.v9.0.dll


Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Runtime.dll

Microsoft.VisualStudio.Tools.Office.Runtime.v9.0.dll
For more information about the purpose of each of these assemblies, see “Visual Studio Tools for Office Runtime Overview” at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb608603(VS.90).aspx. Also, be sure to check out the podcast "Why a VSTO Runtime" at http://blogs.msdn.com/vsto2/archive/2007/07/23/why-a-vsto-runtime.aspx for a brief history of the VSTO runtime and why there are different versions for each release of Microsoft Office.

An updated VSTO 2005 SE runtime (VSTOR.exe, build .891) is now publicly available for download at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=4468D8CB-B43E-4B09-82F6-8BA3F7B5E935
This update contains a couple of bug fixes in the area of Outlook automation. It also contains a number of updates to support Visual Studio 2008. The Customer Support team is working on a KB describing more details of this update. More on that soon.

Download the audio fileDuration 17:08Size 12.5 MB
Mike Morton talks with Christin about using form regions to customize Outlook, and some of the new Outlook tools in VSTO that are coming in Beta 2.
Related links:
Creating Outlook Form Regions by Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE
Creating Outlook Form Regions

Many of you may have heard about Office Business Applications, or OBAs. If not, OBAs are essentially composite applications that you can build using the Microsoft Office 2007 system. Part of the goal of OBAs is to also integrate with LOB systems, such as SAP, PeopleSoft and Dynamics to extend the power of the Office suite to enterprise systems. To learn more about OBAs and to find additional resources, take a look at this site: http://www.microsoft.com/isv/Oba.mspx.
As part of an effort to help developers extend office programmatically, we recently released an OBA/VSTO Starter Kit v.1.0 that shows developers how you can build an OBA that integrates SAP with Office 2007 using VSTO. The kit provides an overview whitepaper, installation documentation and source code to help you, the developer, understand how you can build composite applications using VSTO. These key deliverables are posted here:
1.       OBA/VSTO Starter Kit v. 1.0 Whitepaper: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb498190.aspx
2.       OBA/VSTO Starter Kit v. 1.0 Installation Document:  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb498189.aspx  
3.       OBA/VSTO Starter Kit v. 1.0 Source Code: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=120AAAA8-0A0C-4A0B-B605-4E08FFE7A786&displaylang=en
 
I hope you find this kit useful.
 
Steve Fox
Program Manager

Download the audio fileDuration 13:23Size 9.5 MB
Darryn Lavery talks with Christin about the changes to security and deployment in Visual Studio 2008.
Related link:
ClickOnce Deployment

登陆澳克斯岛（VSTO2008）
Download the audio fileDuration 9:48Size 7 MB
In this Chinese-language episode, Mei Liang and Qiong Ou from VSTO QA provide an introduction to VSTO Orcas and software testing.
Related links:
Visual Studio Product Roadmap
Orcas Island
 

 
The Beta 1 release of Visual Studio Code Name Orcas Tools for the Microsoft Office System introduced a new visual design canvas called the Ribbon Designer.
 
You can use the Ribbon Designer to add custom tabs, groups, and controls to the Ribbon of a 2007 Microsoft Office system application.
 
Accessing controls on the Ribbon at run time is fairly easy as long as you are writing your code in the Ribbon class. For example, to change the label of a button on the Ribbon, you could type the following:
 
[Visual Basic]
Me.Button1.Label = "Hello World"
 
[C#]
this.button1.Label = "Hello World";
 
However, if you want to do this from anywhere else in the project, it can prove to be a bit more challenging.
 
To do this, use the GetRibbonObjects() method of the ThisAddin, ThisWorkbook, or ThisDocument class to return an object that represents the Ribbon in your project. You can then access controls on the Ribbon. 
 
The following example sets the label of a button on the Ribbon of an Excel Workbook customization project.
 
[Visual Basic]
 
Private Sub Sheet1_Startup(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Startup
        Dim ribbons As Microsoft.VisualStudio.OfficeTools.Ribbon.ComponentModel.Ribbon() = Globals.ThisWorkbook.GetRibbonObjects()
        Dim ribbon As Ribbon1 = CType(ribbons(0), ExcelWorkbook3.Ribbon1)
        ribbon.Button1.Label = "Hello World"
End Sub
 
[C#]
 
private void Sheet1_Startup(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
     Microsoft.VisualStudio.OfficeTools.Ribbon.ComponentModel.Ribbon[] ribbons = Globals.ThisWorkbook.GetRibbonObjects();
      Ribbon1 ribbon = (ExcelWorkbook2.Ribbon1)ribbons[0];
      ribbon.button1.Label = "Hello World";
}
 
If you are using a C# project, you need to change the Modifiers property of each Ribbon control that you want to access to either Public or Internal. To do this, perform the following steps:
 
1. On the Ribbon Designer, select a control that you want to make available to your code.
2. On the View menu in Visual Studio, click Properties Window.
3. In the Properties window, click the field next to the Modifiers property, and select Public or Internal from the drop-down list.
  
Note:  This behavior will change for Beta 2 and beyond.
 
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm.

Download the audio fileDuration: 6:03Size: 4.5 MB
In this audio how-to, Harry Miller gives some tips and tricks for creating custom task panes using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition.
Related Videos:Adding Custom Task Panes to 2007 Office Applications Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE
Automating PowerPoint 2007 Using a Custom Task Pane
Related Help Topics:Custom Task Panes Overview
How to: Add a Custom Task Pane to an Application
Walkthrough: Automating an Application from a Custom Task Pane
Walkthrough: Displaying Custom Task Panes with E-Mail Messages in Outlook
How to: Display Custom Task Panes with E-Mail Messages in Outlook

In this audio how-to, Harry Miller gives a basic introduction to customizing the Ribbon in the 2007 Microsoft Office system by using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office Second Edition.
Download the audio fileLength: 5:44Size: 4 MB
Related Video:Automating a Word 2007 Document Using Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office SE Ribbon Support
Related Help Topics:Ribbon Extensibility Overview
How to: Customize the Ribbon
Walkthrough: Automating an Application from Controls on the Ribbon
- Harry Miller