Creating Outlook ribbon UI from scratch – Integrating with Freshbooks web-service, part 3

In this article, we'll continue with the add-in and tackle the process of hiding the standard Outlook Inspector and Explorer Ribbon tabs for the Freshbooks folders and items and replacing them with our own Freshbooks Ribbon Tabs... Read the rest of this entry →

Calling Freshbooks web-service from Outlook, part 2

In the previous article, we started with the basic concept and layout of our Freshbooks Outlook Add-in. So far, we've connected Outlook to the web-service by creating the Freshbooks specific folders, message classes and solution module, and in this article we'll continue building our Outlook plug-in... Read the rest of this entry →

How to integrate Outlook add-in with Freshbooks web-service, part 1

In this article, the first of a series, we'll start building a Microsoft Outlook Add-in that will serve as a client for Freshbooks. Users would be able to view their Freshbooks data as well as perform numerous Freshbooks tasks all from within Outlook... Read the rest of this entry →

Creating an Excel Stock Information RTD server using the Yahoo Finance API

In today's article, we'll write an Excel RTD server that returns the latest stock prices and other information. In case you're not familiar with Excel RTD servers, it is used to communicate with a real-time data source, such as stock quotes and provide the user with a constant flow of changing data... Read the rest of this entry →

Using Outlook Recipient and Recipients collection – guide for developers

Writing email can get you in a lot of trouble if you are not paying attention. I can tell you about some seriously funny (on retrospect) situations caused when I inadvertently added a recipient that I did not intend to add. I can tell you but I won't (unless we meet in person and you buy me a beer). Let's just say that Outlook's autofill feature is not your friend and is not to be trusted... Read the rest of this entry →

Calling Yahoo Weather web-service from an Outlook add-in

It's been a while since my last blog post and today we start the first in a series of exciting blog posts on integrating Microsoft Office applications with web-based services. The web is growing bigger and bigger by the day and there are a wide range of applications and services available on the internet which you can use to provide your users with more features and functionality inside Microsoft Outlook.... Read the rest of this entry →

Outlook Address Book – complete guide for developers

Out-of-the-box, Outlook'is address book is the default contacts folder that resides in a user's Outlook folder structure. In a typical Outlook installation, there is a single contacts folder and feeds the TO, CC, BCC fields in the Outlook email form. In any form that supports assigning a contact to it, the default address book feeds it as well... Read the rest of this entry →

Exception from HRESULT 0x800A01A8 in PowerPoint solutions

On an example of a simple scenario, this article demonstrates what causes 0x800A01A8 and how to avoid it in C#, VB.NET, VBA, Delphi. Exception from HRESULT: 0x800A01A8 is also known as OLE error 800A01A8 and also known as Object Required.... Read the rest of this entry →

Working with the Global Address Book for developers

Outlook makes it easy to maintain your contacts. The contacts you create in Outlook are the basis for the address book you use when sending emails. Sounds simple enough. But did you know that Outlook, in true Microsoft fashion, is much more complex beneath the hood?... Read the rest of this entry →

Outlook Online & Google Mail for developers – What’s the difference?

We've previously explored the different options for developing gadgets for Gmail as well as what options are available to developers to create apps that run on both the desktop and web editions of Microsoft Office. The two platforms are very different and offer varying degrees of customizations... Read the rest of this entry →

Excel Online & Google Sheets for developers – what’s the difference?

In the last few weeks we've covered a lot of aspects of both Google Sheets and Excel Online and we've seen that both platforms offer developers various options to customize and integrate with. In this article we'll evaluate what we've learned so far about Google Sheets and Excel Online and compare the two platforms and what it means for developers ... Read the rest of this entry →

Creating Apps for Microsoft Outlook

In today's article we'll build a similar app for Outlook for the gadget we've build in my last post. Our app will use the subject line of an e-mail to check for search results on the Add-in Express forums and blogs besides we'll also provide our user with the option to perform a manual search... Read the rest of this entry →

Creating a web install package using Designer for WiX Toolset

The Designer for WiX Toolset, aka WiX Designer is a game changer for anyone using the WiX Toolset to build installation programs. With WiX Designer, you now have even more features with our support of the web application projects and the addition of user interface editor... Read the rest of this entry →

Developing Gmail contextual gadgets

In my last article, we explored what is on offer with Google Gmail sidebar gadgets. In today's article we'll take a closer look at what is involved in creating a contextual gadget for Gmail... Read the rest of this entry →

Video: Create WiX setup projects using familiar Visual Studio designers

Visual Studio 2013 is a wonderful code editor. I'm a fan of it (monochrome icons and all). However, I have not adopted as quickly as I thought due to the lack of support for setup projects. This was big whole, thus many of us, developers, have turned to WiX... Read the rest of this entry →

How to create Gmail sidebar gadgets

In this article, we'll build our own Google Gmail gadget that will display the latest Add-in Express blog posts in a sidebar gadget. A Google sidebar gadget is essentially a page, which can contain HTML, CSS or JavaScript, that runs inside an iframe inside the Gmail UI... Read the rest of this entry →

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