The Outlook Script Editor

While creating forms and actions in the two previous chapters, you might have wondered what the View Code command on the Form menu does. When you choose this command, the Outlook Script Editor appears, showing you how VBScript is integrated with Outlook. Figure 5-1 shows the Script Editor displaying code from a sample application.

Figure 5-1: The integrated Outlook Script Editor

Using the Script Editor, you can add VBScript procedures and variables to your Outlook applications, use Outlook objects in your applications, and write VBScript to handle Outlook events. The Script Editor provides the Insert Event Handler dialog box, in which you select the event you want to write a handler for. We'll discuss Outlook events in more detail in Chapter 17.

The Script Editor also makes it easy to debug errant code in your application. Outlook provides line numbers when reporting errors; you can jump to a specific line of code by choosing Go To from the Edit menu, specifying the line number, and clicking OK.