Microsoft KB Archive/290661

= General information about how to use VBScript with Outlook custom forms =

Article ID: 290661

Article Last Modified on 3/23/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Office Outlook 2003
 * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q290661



INTRODUCTION
This article contains general information about how to use Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) together with custom forms in Microsoft Office Outlook and with Microsoft Outlook.

Note VBScript has not significantly changed since the year 2000. Therefore, the version information that follows is more important for earlier versions of Outlook. Generally, VBScript versioning does not affect custom form solutions that are developed for Outlook 2000 and for later versions of Outlook. However, if you will be using a custom form in Outlook 98 or in Outlook 97, you should carefully test the custom form to make sure that it is compatible with earlier versions of VBScript.



Overview
VBScript is the programming language that you use to create custom form solutions for Outlook. Microsoft Internet Explorer also uses VBScript to create custom HTML page solutions.

VBScript is generally a subset of the commands that are available in Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications. Visual Basic for Applications is a subset of the commands that are available in Microsoft Visual Basic.

In Outlook, VBScript is stored in Outlook forms or items. For example, VBScript is stored in a contact, in a mail message, or in an appointment. There is no global repository for VBScript code in Outlook. This behavior differs from Visual Basic for Applications code.

VBScript offers the following advantages when you use it in an enterprise solution or in a distributed solution:
 * Because VBScript code is interpreted and not compiled, Outlook items are relatively small as measured by bytes. This means that Outlook items consume less corporate resources and Exchange Server resources and also give you faster performance.
 * VBScript is designed to be a secure programming environment. It lacks various commands that can be potentially damaging if they are used in a malicious manner.

VBScript version history
Note This list is incomplete. However, this list highlights the major versions of VBScript relative to the major versions of Microsoft Office and Outlook.

How to obtain VBScript updates and documentation
To obtain up-to-date information and documentation for Microsoft scripting languages, visit the following Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) Web site:

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms950396.aspx

Deploying VBScript with an Outlook solution
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 your computer. Scrrun.dll provides additional objects for use with VBScript, such as the FileSystemObject for reading and writing text files in a file system. If you use any functionality that is provided by Scrrun.dll, you must make sure that this dynamic link library is installed on all computers that will use your solution.

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol2000 OutSol2002 OutSol2003

Keywords: kbdswnet2003swept kbinfo KB290661

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