Useful toolbar buttons you don't see every day in Outlook 2003
August 14, 2009 • JP • No Comments • Rate This Article
• Links to this article
You too can create your own little cluttered Ribbon in Excel and Outlook 2003, without having to upgrade to Office 2007!
Or even load up your 2003 menus with new commands, so you can see what its like if Microsoft didn't change the UI but instead just loaded up the existing menus with new stuff. Maybe then, Microsoft would be able to stop complaining that users are asking for features that already exist (which is partly why they created the Ribbon), if they put them on a toolbar in the first place. Funny how that works!
There are a few hidden gems in the Excel and Outlook command lists that are worth exploring, and even adding to your existing toolbars (I keep the Standard and Formatting toolbars visible at all times in Excel, and Standard and Advanced toolbars in Outlook).
We'll explore a few commands that are either hard to reach, contextual, or simply don't exist on any of the most often used toolbars.
Access hidden commands in Outlook
In order to add commands to a toolbar, right click on any of the existing toolbars and choose "Customize…", or go to View » Toolbars » Customize… Here's a screenshot:
Office Document
We'll start with Outlook 2003 first. The first command we'll look at is Office Document, which creates a new Office Document (spreadsheet, presentation, etc).
In the Customize dialog box, go to the Commands tab, pick Standard from the Categories listbox and scroll down the Commands listbox until you see Office Document. Click and drag the icon to your toolbar of choice. Incidentally, the hotkey combination for this command is Ctrl+Shift+H.
If you create a lot of Office documents, this command will be useful on your toolbar. The only downside is the icon is boring. But we can change that with a bit of code. Just call the following function with the Face ID number you want.
Dim cb As Office.CommandBar
Dim cbb As Office.CommandBarButton
Set cb = ActiveExplorer.CommandBars("Advanced")
Set cbb = cb.Controls("Office Document")
With cbb
cbb.FaceId = faceIDNumber
End With
End Function
To get a list of Face IDs, use the code found at Face ID Toolbar Generator, or a tool like JMT Excel Utilities. My choice is number 2358, which looks like a clipboard with the Office logo on it.
You can also use a similar technique to execute a command on a toolbar. i.e.
Dim cb As Office.CommandBar
Dim cbb As Office.CommandBarButton
Set cb = ActiveExplorer.CommandBars("Advanced")
Set cbb = cb.Controls(commandName)
cbb.Execute
End Function
will execute any named command on the Advanced toolbar.
New email, choose your type
Three commands you should find useful from the Actions menu are
- Plain Text
- Rich Text
- HTML (No Stationery)
In the Customize dialog box, go to Actions and check out these three commands. Each one creates a new email in either plain text (olTXT), rich text (olRTF) or HTML (olHTML) format. So you can write to internal contacts using HTML or RTF format, and email people outside your company using plain text, with just a click of a button. It's just the right thing to do.
Colored flags unfurled
Nothing screams "organized" like flagging your emails with different colors. You can then sort and prioritize your emails. Even better when you add a bit of code to enhance the process (I did a bit of that during Searchbox Week).
Also under the Actions menu, each of the colored Flag icons may be found: Red, Blue, Yellow, and so on. Just click and drag each one to a toolbar (even better, create a new toolbar just for them).
Note: If you need specific instructions on how to add a button to a toolbar, see this TechRepublic article
Next week, I'll write about some useful Excel toolbar commands. I'll also have a review of JMT Excel Utilities.
Outlook ·
Rate This Article:
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading ...What now?
Subscribe To The Blog
Email This Article
Follow Me On Twitter
My Facebook Page
Or just keep reading:
I'm just an average guy who writes VBA code for a living. This is my personal blog. Excel and Outlook are my thing, with a sprinkle of Access and Word here and there. Follow this space if you want to learn more about VBA. Keep Reading »
Previous Post: Easy Center Across Selection
Next Post: Save all attachments from selected folder, continued
I'm I missing something or did they get rid of colored flags in Outlook 2007?
Here's how flags have been updated in Outlook 2007:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA100137781033.aspx