OL98: How to Start Another Program from an Outlook Form

This article describes how you can start another program from a Microsoft Outlook 98 form using Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) and Automation.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs.
If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or Microsoft Advisory Services. For more information, visit these Microsoft Web sites:

Microsoft Certified Partners - https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104 (https://partner.microsoft.com/global/30000104)

Microsoft Advisory Services - http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice (http://support.microsoft.com/gp/advisoryservice)

For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site:http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;EN-US;CNTACTMS (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=fh;en-us;cntactms) The example below uses the Item_Open event from within a form to start another program when you open the form. However, you can also use a Click event for a command button so the user can start another program by clicking a button.

The program you want to start must support Automation, because VBScript and the Outlook object model do not support any other methods of running programs other than using the CreateObject and GetObject methods.

In the following example, the Open event starts Microsoft Internet Explorer and opens the Microsoft Web home page. This example assumes that you have installed Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Follow these steps to create a mail form that opens the Microsoft Web home page:

1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click Mail Message.
2. On the Tools menu of the new mail message, point to Forms, and then click Design This Form.
3. On the Form menu, click View Code.
4. In the Script Editor, type the following code:

         Sub Item_Open()
            Set MyApp = Item.Application
            Set Web = MyApp.CreateObject("InternetExplorer.Application")
            Web.Visible = TRUE
            Web.Navigate "www.microsoft.com"
         End Sub
   						

5. On the Script Editor File menu, click Close to return to the form.
6. On the Form menu, click Run This form.
   
   Once the form opens, Microsoft Internet Explorer automatically opens to the Microsoft Web home page.

For more information about creating solutions with Microsoft Outlook 98, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: