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share code 09-Sep-2010 05:54

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Code level: advanced Code area: Outlook Expert Techniques Printer Friendly Version
Title: Dynamic menu items
Description: Demonstrates how to dynamically add menu items.
Date: 06-Jul-2007 15:58
Code level: advanced
Code area: Outlook Expert Techniques
Posted by: Steve Bateman
Body: Paste the code as directed below, then right-click any outlook menu and choose customise. Add a menu called "TestMenu", then run the "Test_buttons" macro. Delete the TestMenu menubar after. ---------- Paste code into Module called "DynamicMenus" ---------- Option Explicit Private myButtons As Collection Public Sub AddButtonHandler(aButton As CommandBarControl, Optional reInit As Boolean = False) Dim myMenuItem As DynamicMenuItem Dim i As Integer If reInit Or myButtons Is Nothing Then Set myButtons = New Collection Set myMenuItem = New DynamicMenuItem Set myMenuItem.aControl = aButton myButtons.Add myMenuItem End Sub Public Sub DynamicMenuClicked(ByVal Ctrl As CommandBarControl) Call MsgBox(Ctrl.Tag, vbOKOnly, Ctrl.Caption) End Sub Public Sub Test_buttons() Dim anExplorer As Explorer Dim anInspector As Inspector Dim aCommandBar As CommandBar Dim aControl As CommandBarControl Dim currItemClass As OlObjectClass Dim i As Integer For Each anExplorer In Application.Explorers For Each aCommandBar In anExplorer.CommandBars If aCommandBar.Name = "TestMenu" Then For i = aCommandBar.Controls.Count To 1 Step -1 aCommandBar.Controls(i).Delete Next ' Add a button Set aControl = aCommandBar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton) With aControl .Caption = "Item 1" .Tag = "... returns whatever is in item 1's tag" End With Call AddButtonHandler(aControl, True) ' Add a button Set aControl = aCommandBar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton) With aControl .Caption = "Item 2" .Tag = "... has something else in its tag" End With Call AddButtonHandler(aControl) ' Add a button Set aControl = aCommandBar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton) With aControl .Caption = "Item 3" .Tag = "... is not like the others" End With Call AddButtonHandler(aControl) End If Next aCommandBar Next anExplorer End Sub -------- Paste code into a Class called "DynamicMenuItem" -------- Option Explicit Dim WithEvents myButton As CommandBarButton Dim myControl As CommandBarControl Property Set aControl(anyControl As CommandBarControl) If anyControl.Type = msoControlButton Then Set myButton = anyControl Else Set myControl = anyControl End If End Property Property Get aControl() As CommandBarControl If Not myButton Is Nothing Then aControl = myButton Else aControl = myControl End If End Property ' "on button click" processing Private Sub myButton_Click(ByVal Ctrl As Office.CommandBarButton, CancelDefault As Boolean) Call DynamicMenuClicked(Ctrl) End Sub
All 11comments

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	MisterBates 07-Jul-2007 04:17 Thought I'd add some comments to explain the example ... The example shows how to add menu items "on the fly", and have the menu click for all these menu items come back to a single macro. For anyone reading this, the question is probably "why would you want to do this, when it's already possible to add a menu item and associate it with a macro?". I'm working on some macros to file messages I receive into my folders, keeping track of the last 10...20...100 folders used and bringing the most recent to the top of the heap each time. Kind of a "most recently used filefolder". I have it working with 10 items, but to do this I created 10 subs - each one calls a generic "file the item" sub with a 0-9 parameter specifying which MRU folder to file in. Having use this for a bit, I'm finding I have some folders that I file to all the time, and some others that seem to change day to day, week to week. The more repidly changing folders are in a different mailbox (added to my profile), so I thought to present the MRU folder list as a two-level menu, with mailbox/PST as the top level, and MRU folders as the second level. As a folder was used, it would move to the top of the folder list for the mailbox/PST and would move the mailbox/PST to the top of the first-level menu. Complicated? Could be ... The problem was how to go about achieving the two-level menu system without creating 100 subs that all call a generic sub. With the technique above, I can now create as many menu items as needed, set each one's tag property to be the folder to file in, and route the 'click' from all of them to a single sub that uses the menuitem tag to do the filing ... I'm sharing the technique so that others with similar needs (multiple menus that all do essentially the same thing - like MRU lists) can use it. It also demonstrates, using a module and a class, how to capture and use menu click events - which is another question frequently asked. Anyway, hope you find it useful.
	MADdie 20-Nov-2007 04:59 Im using Outlook 2003 at the office. Somewhere it just will not add menu items. I made a macro to forward emails and move them to sub folders(pst) and to save their attachments if they contain specific files. To add 10 to 30 knobs on each computer in the company is't do able, besides its niftier when the menu's can be created based on a network placed file. Is their any code Im missing or am I doing anything wrong? I took your code as is and only renamed the root name after the first try didn't work.
	Steve Bateman 20-Nov-2007 05:52 Hi - for the Test_buttons() routine to work you need to add an empty menu bar called "TestMenu", then run the macro. You should end up with three buttons on the menu bar, and when you click them each should display a message box with the customer tag. Note that the code is only to demonstrate how to create menu items "on the fly" that trigger vb code when clicked, passing whatever was stored in the .tag property for the menu item. The code does not implement all the stuff necessary to record folders used for filing, and to file new items into the remembered folders ...
	MADdie 20-Nov-2007 09:00 Uhm yup, doesn't work here. I don't get any error codes nor does he adds three menu Items. I also tried different ways to add menus but it seems that my outlook doesn't accept it.
	Steve Bateman 20-Nov-2007 12:30 K. To check what's happening I would "step into" the macro, then step through using F8 to see which line of code is not working. At least for the test_buttons() routine, this should be possible to do. BTW - this code is working for me on OL2003 - which version do you have?
	MADdie 22-Nov-2007 09:55 in the aCommandbar.name i see the names lika advanced and clipboard passing by but not the name TestMenu. So he skips the entire code of set aControl and with aControl. Whe are working with OL2003 SP2. Edit: Made an mistake with adding a menu and menu item.
	MADdie 22-Nov-2007 09:55 It works now!
	MADdie 22-Nov-2007 11:35 Hmm only one thing left. Now that it works Im making the code bigger. Open "C:\buttons.inf" For Input As #1 For Each anExplorer In Application.Explorers For Each aCommandBar In anExplorer.CommandBars If aCommandBar.Name = "TestMenu" Then For i = aCommandBar.Controls.Count To 1 Step -1 aCommandBar.Controls(i).Delete Next ' Add a button Do Until EOF(1) Input #1, Str1, Str2 Set aControl = aCommandBar.Controls.Add(Type:=msoControlButton) With aControl .Caption = Str1 .Tag = Str2 End With Call AddButtonHandler(aControl, True) Loop End If Next aCommandBar Next anExplorer Close #1 The last button the code adds works, the first few gets added but the Tag info behind it doesn't work any more. Im debugging my code after the weekend, got some other things to do besides being a coorparate slave ;) lol If anyone sees the problem please let me know.
	Steve Bateman 22-Nov-2007 12:49 Hi - remove the 'True' from the call to AddButtonHandler. Including this parm re-initializes the collection holding the items that trigger when a button is pressed. To be clear, you need to replace 'Call AddButtonHandler(aControl, True)' with 'Call AddButtonHandler(aControl)'.
	MADdie 26-Nov-2007 08:18 Ok tnx :) Works like a charm.
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