>>anyone here have experience in programming ms outlook? we're looking into this area and would like advice, warnings, suggestions, etc.
>
>Dave - Our team is currently working in Outlook. We are used to working in VFP, and have some experience with VB and Office apps. Outlook seems like it should have promise, but we have found it frustrating. Some examples...
>* The language *
>1. Visual Basic Scripting Edition is a subset of VBA. It is missing constants, commands, and has some functions and commands that work slightly different than their VB counterparts. We are constantly trying to "write around" limitations. We have found few resources to know exactly what is different. There is a MS Press book on using VB in Office which has helped. Be sure to look at the end of each section where you will often find this phrase "Outlook does not support this feature."
>2. There are several versions of VBSE that are not fully compatible with each other. Installing other products, like IE4, will change the scripting engine. For example, we made a minor change to an Outlook app which then began failing on many, but not all machines. The culprit? The developer (Bill Caton-I think he has written to you on the VFP side) had upgraded to IE4 and had a newer version of vbscript.dll.
>3. Native components have very limited events. No double clicks, getfocus, etc. Some components, like the text box, don't even have a click event. You can use third party controls, but then you must be sure the components are available to each user.
>
>*The development tools*
>1. No debugger. (There is one downloadable from MS if you have the most recent version of VBSE.) Microsoft suggest debugging by peppering your code with MessageBoxes.
>2. No search in the editor. To search for something, or do search & replace, we copy the code to the clipboard, paste it in another editor like VFP's or even NotePad, then copy it back to OutLook.
>
>Well, you get the idea. Sometimes we look at the native apps (calendar, contacts, etc) and think there must be a way to do more with Outlook. I would like to see some posts by someone who has had a better experience and would offer some suggestions.
>
>David.

thanks for the reply -- i'll add that to my list of 'things we could do better if we had the budget for it'...