Opening multiple Outlook 2003 windows

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loKtite - 28 Jul 2004 18:56 GMT

Greetings,

We have a user who always uses 3 Outlook windows -- Inbox with Navigation Pane enalbed, Calendar with Navigation Pane disabled, and Tasks with Navigation Pane disabled. He wants to be able to have Outlook open when logging in and automatically remember the size and location of each.

If you open Outlook to inbox, then right click on calendar and open in new window, configure that window, then close the main Outlook window, then the 2nd, it will remember size/location when you re-open Outlook. You have to remember to close the main window first everytime however. This method only works for the main and a 2nd window.

I can open the 3 windows automatically by using the command line syntax. Example
<<
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select outlook:calendar
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select outlook:tasks
"C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select outlook:inbox

However, this opens all 3 with the cascaded with the same size and Navigation Pane configuration.

Is there an easy way to meet the end-user's desire? Is there a not-so-easy way?

Thanks!

Reply to this Message

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 28 Jul 2004 19:55 GMT

Easily accomplished with a little VBA code. Put this procedure in the
built-in ThisOutlookSession module.

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Dim NS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim objFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim objExpl As Outlook.Explorer
Set NS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")

Set objFolder = NS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderCalendar)
Set objExpl = objFolder.GetExplorer
objExpl.ShowPane olNavigationPane, False
objExpl.Activate

Set objFolder = NS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderTasks)
Set objExpl = objFolder.GetExplorer
objExpl.ShowPane olNavigationPane, False
objExpl.Activate

Set NS = Nothing
Set objFolder = Nothing
Set objExpl = Nothing
End Sub

If you're new to Outlook VBA macros, these web pages should help you get
started:

http://www.winnetmag.com/Articles/Index.cfm?ArticleID=21522&pg=1
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/vb.htm

Signature

Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

> Greetings,
>
> We have a user who always uses 3 Outlook windows -- Inbox with Navigation Pane enalbed, Calendar with Navigation Pane disabled, and Tasks with

Navigation Pane disabled. He wants to be able to have Outlook open when
logging in and automatically remember the size and location of each.

> If you open Outlook to inbox, then right click on calendar and open in new window, configure that window, then close the main Outlook window, then the

2nd, it will remember size/location when you re-open Outlook. You have to
remember to close the main window first everytime however. This method only
works for the main and a 2nd window.

> I can open the 3 windows automatically by using the command line syntax. Example
> <<
> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select outlook:calendar
> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select

outlook:tasks

> "C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe" /select

outlook:inbox

> However, this opens all 3 with the cascaded with the same size and Navigation Pane configuration.
>
> Is there an easy way to meet the end-user's desire? Is there a not-so-easy way?
>
> Thanks!

Reply to this Message

loKtite - 28 Jul 2004 20:30 GMT

Excellent on opening the windows. Anyone have ideas on remembering size and location of the secondary windows? Again, thanks for the tip Sue!

> Easily accomplished with a little VBA code. Put this procedure in the
> built-in ThisOutlookSession module.
[quoted text clipped - 56 lines]
> >
> > Thanks!

Reply to this Message

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] - 28 Jul 2004 21:34 GMT

That's quite a bit more work and I don't think I have time to write it
today. I'll leave it as an exercise for someone else. Basically, you'd need
to declare object variables WithEvents for each of the secondary windows'
Explorer objects and use the Explorer.Close event to record the position and
size, either in the registry or in a text file or somewhere else accessible.
The Application_startup routine would then read that data and adjust the
sizes accordingly.

Signature

Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

> Excellent on opening the windows. Anyone have ideas on remembering size and location of the secondary windows? Again, thanks for the tip Sue!
>
[quoted text clipped - 58 lines]
> > >
> > > Thanks!

Reply to this Message