KB198355 - OL2000: General Information About Using VBScript with Outlook

PSS ID Number: 198355

Article Last Modified on 11/5/2003

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 2000

This article was previously published under Q198355

SUMMARY

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

MORE INFORMATION

This article discusses the following topics:

Overview
VBScript Version History
How to Obtain VBScript Updates and 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 2000 installs VBScript version 5.0.

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

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 Visual Basic for Applications code.

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 Exchange 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

   Version   Notes
   -------   ------
   1.0       Included with Outlook versions 8.0 - 8.04

   2.0       No longer available for download. Included with with Internet
             Information Server (IIS) 2.0. Download file: Scr20en.exe.
             Added features included arrays, the For Each...Next structure,
             and GetObject/CreateObject.

   3.0       Installed by Internet Explorer 4.0

   3.1       Installed by Internet Explorer 4.1. Download file: scr31en.exe

   3.1a      No longer available for download.

             Download file: scr31en.exe. Fixed problem with GetObject,
             which in 3.0-3.1 would always return a new instance of a
             registered component or application.

   4.0       Installed by Visual Studio 6.0. Added features are specific to
             use with Visual Studio. Not available for download.

   5.0       Installed by Internet Explorer 5.0, which is installed by
             Microsoft Outlook 2000.

             Available for download at http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting

How to Obtain VBScript Updates and Documentation

Up-to-date information and documentation for Microsoft scripting languages is available from the Microsoft Web site at the following address:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/scripting

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.

REFERENCES

For additional information about available resources and answers to commonly asked questions about Microsoft Outlook 2000 solutions, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

146636 OL2000: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol2000 OL2K

Keywords: kbinfo KB198355
Technology: kbOutlook2000Search kbOutlookSearch kbZNotKeyword3