Today, Eric Carter blogged about Small Changes: VSTO host item and host controls & InnerObject. Basically, whereas key classes in VSTO used to derive from Microsoft.Office.Interop.<whateverapp>.<whateverclass>, they now do not. Going forward, they derive from Microsoft.Office.Tools.<whateverapp>.<whateverclass>. The idea here is that this makes solutions more portable to future Office releases. Eric's blog deals with Excel and Word, and he gives a great explanation of why and how. I wanted you to know that we have made a similar change with Outlook.

The VSTO the application object used to derive from the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.Application interface so you could pass your application object around, and it was a native Outlook application object. Now, the application object derives from Microsoft.Office.Tools.Outlook.Application.

Learn more about VSTO Outlook support here:

Introducing Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office

Architecture of the Outlook Add-in Support in Visual Studio 2005 Tools for Office

 Rock Thought for the Day: Alright, it's time I review the White Stripes new album, Get Behind Me Satan. It might be easiest to just lay out a question: What if an essentially two-piece indie band that busted through the doors of commerical rock in a colossal debut wanted to do another indie-style album? Normally, the answer would be: "Career-ender". But, this duo continue to play the market, the industry, and the music just right. If you have been so brain-washed by the music industry's money-making music cliches, then the Get Behind Me Satan will be a huge disappointment. For me, I could only argue with a couple of songs on this album. On the other hand, I could smell the Kentucky blue grass when I listened to "Little Ghost" (I'm guessing heavily influenced by Jack's collaboration with The Coal Miner's Daughter). The variety of songs is refreshing, and the piano is sometimes honky tonk trashed. I'm heading to a roadhouse!

Rock On