OL98: General Information About Using VBScript with Outlook

This article provides general information about using Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) with Microsoft Outlook 98.

This article discusses the following topics:

• Overview
• VBScript Version History
• How to Determine Your Version of VBScript
• How to Obtain VBScript Version 3.1a and Its Documentation
• Deploying VBScript with an Outlook Solution

Overview

VBScript is the programming language that you use to create custom form solutions with Outlook. Microsoft Internet Explorer also uses VBScript to create custom HTML page solutions. Outlook installs VBScript version 3.1.

VBScript is generally a subset of the commands available in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications in Office 97, which in turn is a subset of the commands available in Microsoft Visual Basic 5.0.

In Outlook, VBScript is stored within Outlook forms or items, such as a contact, mail message, or appointment. There is no global repository for VBScript code in Outlook as there is for VBA code in other Office applications. All programming from within Outlook involves creating a custom form. You can also automate Outlook from another Visual Basic or Microsoft Office application by using the object model of Outlook; however, the object model is heavily based on Outlook items and folders.

VBScript offers the following advantages when used in an enterprise or distributed solution.

• Because VBScript code is interpreted and not compiled, Outlook items are relatively small (in terms of bytes). This means they consume less corporate and Internet server resources and also result in faster performance.
• VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment. It lacks various commands that can be potentially damaging if used in a malicious manner.

VBScript Version History

How to Determine Your Version of VBScript

To determine which version of VBScript you have, follow these steps:

1. Click Start, point to Find, and then click Files Or Folders.
2. In the Named box, type "vbscript.dll" (without the quotation marks), and then click Find Now.
3. Using the right mouse button, click the Vbscript.dll file name in the Name list, and on the shortcut menu, click Properties.
4. Click the Version tab and note the "File version" information.

       VBScript   DLL version   File Date   File Size
       ---------------------------------------------------
       1.0        1.0.0.806     (varies)    206,848 bytes
       2.0        2.0.0.1125    (varies)    252,232 bytes
       3.0        3.0.0.2026    9/18/97     327,952 bytes
       3.1        3.1.0.2124    11/18/97    328,976 bytes
       3.1a       3.1.0.2430    12/30/97    328,976 bytes
       4.0        4.0.0.2926    6/26/98     989,779 bytes
   					

How to Obtain VBScript 3.1a and Its Documentation

The VBScript 3.1a update and Scripting documentation is available from the Microsoft Web site at the following address:

Deploying VBScript with an Outlook Solution

If an Outlook solution uses any commands specific to VBScript version 3.x, you must install the updated version of VBScript on all of the computers that will use the solution. This will only be a potential issue if some people are using a version of Outlook 97 earlier than version 8.03.

If you download the scripting files from the Scripting web site, the complete set of scripting dynamic-link libraries (Vbscript.dll, Jscript.dll, and Scrrun.dll) are installed on the computer. Scrrun.dll provides additional objects for use with VBScript, such as the FileSystemObject for reading and writing text files in a file system.

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