Addin to restore Out of Office popup

[aapke]

Has anyone created an addin to restore the popup for the 'Out of Office' tool in Outlook 2007? We are not yet on Exchange 2007 so can't use that option and it seems like everyone forgets to turn it off since it's so unobtrusive in the corner.

[JDB1984]

Hi aapke,

Unfortunately I have not seen any custom addons or scripts for Outlook 2007.

create a recurring Task which reminds you to check the OOF status each morning (or whenever you start working. To create a recurring task choose; File-> New-> Task and in the Task window press the Recurrence button on the Ribbon. When the reminder pops-up in the morning, make sure you mark it as complete (right click on the task in the Reminder Window) instead of pressing the Dismiss button. This will make sure that there will be a new task generated for the next recurrence.

As per the article here which explains the different OOF alerts from 2003/2007/2010.

http://www.msoutlook.info/question/283

Edit:

I have found a solution which I have not had a moment to test yet from a member at ExpertsExchange. The solution is only available to premium members so I have included it here.

Because the URL is long I have tinyurl'd it. Use the preview link if you are cautious.

http://tinyurl.com/3aacufo
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3aacufo

Here's the code for doing this. Follow these instructions to use it.

1. Start Outlook
2. Click Tools->Macro->Visual Basic Editor
3. If not already expanded, expand Microsoft Office Outlook Objects and click on ThisOutlookSession
4. Copy the code from the Code Snippet box and paste it into the right-hand pane of Outlook's VB Editor window
5. Edit the code as needed. I included comment lines wherever something needs to or can change
6. Click the diskette icon on the toolbar to save the changes
7. Close the VB Editor
8. Click Tools > Trust Center
9. Click Macro Security
10. Set Macro Security to "Warnings for all macros"
11. Click OK
12. Close Outlook
13. Start Outlook. Outlook will display a dialog-box warning that ThisOutlookSession contains macros and asking if you want to allow them to run. Say yes.

Here's how this works. Each time Outlook starts it fires the Application_Startup event. Any code in that event handler runs. In this case, it calls the routine to check OOF. The subroutine CheckOOFState runs and checks to see if out of office is turned on. If it is, then it displays a dialog box in the middle of the screen letting the user know it's on and asking if they want to trun it off. If they click the Yes button, then it the message is turned off.

Private Sub Application_Startup()
    CheckOOFState
End Sub
 
Sub CheckOOFState()
    Const PR_OOF_STATE = "http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/proptag/0x661D000B"
    Dim olkIS As Outlook.Store, olkPA As Outlook.PropertyAccessor, bolOOF As Boolean, varChoice As Variant
    For Each olkIS In Session.Stores
        If olkIS.ExchangeStoreType = olPrimaryExchangeMailbox Then
            Set olkPA = olkIS.PropertyAccessor
            bolOOF = olkPA.GetProperty(PR_OOF_STATE)
            Exit For
        End If
    Next
    If bolOOF Then
        'Edit the message as you see fit.'
        varChoice = MsgBox("Out of Office is turned on.  Do you want to turn it off?", vbInformation + vbYesNo + vbApplicationModal, "Out of Office Reminder")
        If varChoice = vbYes Then
            olkPA.SetProperty PR_OOF_STATE, False
        End If
    End If
    Set olkIS = Nothing
    Set olkPA = Nothing
End Sub

Moderators: Please remove if this is against any rules.

[aapke]

That actually works BEAUTIFULLY! Thank you so much!