Customer Reviews

Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook 2000

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a must have reference if you plan on doing any amount of Outlook programming. The book is edited by Sue Mosher (of MS Outlook 2000 Programming in 24 Hours fame). Byrne (the author) does a good job of laying out the "world" starting with brief (30 pages) introduction of Outlook, some examples of what you can create, and the various design tools. Next comes a quick guide to building applications followed with a full blown example (which BTW works). Other sections cover building forms (controls, fields, properties, actions, folders, events, outlook and command bars, the assistant), VBA and VBScript (this BTW is where you will spend most of your time wearing the book out), and how to distribute (and maintain) applications. Byrne then goes on to advanced topics like COM Add-ins, Home Pages, Data Access, ActiveX, MTS, and Exchange Server scripting objects. To top it off a CD with complete code examples is included. The book literally paid for itself shortly after coming in my door. The only thing I wish it had examples of is Javascript for which there are nil, but this is Outlook afterall!

This is not the typical cut-paste, how-to technical book that is so typical these days. Byrne's focus is on educating the reader with a full understanding of not just what to do, but how and why.

This is definitely not for the casual reader or someone not serious about the subject. Outlook development is more than just "spinning some code," it requires an understanding of a multitude of technologies on both the client and server. Byrne found a good balance between the Outlook and Exchange sides. He has also brought along the depth and attention to detail that have made him one of the, if not the, most popular MVPs out there.

After reading so many books (many later donated to bird cage duty) that claimed to teach a subject, this was a refreshing read. Kudos

This book shows a great number of possibilities for Outlook that a lot of client users did not know were possible. However, the book uses a bit more VB Script than I was looking for. I like Outlook 2000 from Wrox Publishing for an explanation on how to get past the VBScripting sections of the book. (Indirectly of course, you can't have everything spelled out for you.) With both of these books you should have all the reference you need for Outlook 2000.

If you want to start making applications with Outlook 2000 and have no previous knowledge of how to achieve this, this book is definitely a must.

There is no explanation of how to use Outlook in this book, just pure development. And that's good! The author, Randy Byrne, takes you on a journey visiting every aspect of Outlook, from how to make macros with VBA, through customization of forms covering the Outlook Object Model in detail, creating COM Add-ins and customizing folder home pages. The last chapter also explains how to make Exchange agents.

On the downside, although the books has many examples, still many of these, in my experience, don't apply when writing real-world applications. Although he mentions CDO - which you also will have to use sooner or later - it is not covered. The book also refers a bit much to the included cd which you need to install to follow some of the examples.

But - a great buy for the beginning Outlook developer (and there so many topics covered in this book, so you won't be putting it away for long time - I frequently use it myself).

The author Randy Byrne did not only revise the former book "Building Applications with Outlook 97/98".

He created a new resource for all developers who want to build applications on top of Outlook 2000. The "Advanced Topics" cover COM Add-Ins, Folder Home Pages and many more new thrilling features of Outlook 2000.

A "must to have" for all developers. I already have two copies on my bookcase, one at home and one at work.

Keep on rocking Randy!

</Siegfried>

This book is well written but suffers the same problems as Rizzo's book. In the future all applications will take advantage of the Internet Mail protocols and not use proprietary hooks. Exchange and Outlook are moving in that direction already. If you are programming now make sure you think ahead into the future and invest in a book on how to program the Internet Mail protocols (eg. Adams, Rhoton, Jensen or any of the others.)

This Reference Guide is packed with information to help a budding programming get started in Customizing Outlook. The enclosed disc provides some good examples support this reference material well. However, the structure of the book is a little off base. Instead of feeding a bunch of detail at the beginning, Mr. Byrne should start off with a simpler approach. In addition, he should have used a more structured approach and used Bolder or Capitalized Font for critical areas of emphasis. Furthermore, it would have been nice to give at least a basic run through on Visual Basic Programming.

None the less after some trial and error, a savvy user should be able to at least get started on some Outlook Customizations. This reference guide certainly increases in value if the budding programming who uses this book is taking a class where a professor can explain the details behind the book. 3 1/2 stars seems about right.

I am very excited about the book. I have learned that Outlook can do so much more than is available in the basic canned version. I am not a programmer, nor am I very technical, and yet I am able to follow the information in the book. Indepth, but even amateurs can understand it!

This is an intermediate to advanced book that keeps it worthwhile VB programmers that don't know the quirks of the Outlook Object Model. The examples and disk are very helpful.