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ribbonoutlook-web-addins

Ribbon Discoverability Issues

Before posting this on voice, I want to make sure that my understanding is correct.

When Ribbon was introduced to Office, the main point was discoverability. It appears that Outlook JS API breaks away from this.

  1. I can not specify my tab on the Explorer Ribbon in Manifest.
  2. I can not dynamically change contents of any ribbon.
  3. If I create a custom tab for MessageReadCommandSurface, Explorer will display the tab; however, if I create a custom tab for any other surface, Explorer will not display it.
  4. If I create a custom tab for MessageReadCommandSurface, then controls from the other surfaces will not be displayed in the Explorer Ribbon regardless whether I specify default tab or custom tab for other surfaces.
  5. Explorer will display custom tab ( if defined for MessageReadCommandSurface ) while Inspector will display a surface-appropriate tab.
  6. Based on 3, 4, and 5, if one selects "My Company Name" for a custom tab label ( across different custom tabs ) then Explorer's tab is out of sync with the Inspector's tab. This confuses the user.
  7. If we add a different tab for each surface to address #6, it will create a clutter, and still won't bring controls to the explorer.
  8. Dumping everything on the default tab will still create a clutter and is against recommendation of having less than six top-level commands on the default tab. ( https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/dev/add-ins/design/add-in-commands )

Is the above understanding correct? Is there a way around the problems above? Are there any issues above that the team is planning to address in the near future?

Thanks

Solution

  • All of the above statements are correct.
    There aren't any workarounds here.

    Thanks for your feedback. Learning about the new requirements add-in developers have, helps us continue to enable great scenarios on our platform. It appears your statements contain potential requests for features that are not part of our product. We track Outlook add-in feature requests on our user-voice page. Please add your requests there. Features on user-voice are also considered when we go through our planning process.

    Link to user voice: https://officespdev.uservoice.com/forums/224641-general/category/131778-outlook-add-ins.

    Thanks again for your feedback,
    Outlook Add-ins Engineering Team