Windows Messenger and Outlook XP contacts: integration questions

[Olivier Travers]

After reading Outlook XP's help and parsing through the menus in
Windows Messenger, my impression is that integration between the two
is actually quite limited. Here are some things I'm trying to do but
that either are not possible, or that I didn't find how to accomplish:

- In the Outlook contact list, add a Status field (ie. "online",
"away", ...). If you use MyYahoo, you've seen how online status icons
make sense within a contact list/address book.

- From the Outlook contact list, instant message someone, following
the usual Outlook UI customs, eg. by right-clicking it or dragging it
to a left-panel shortcut. I created a shortcut to msmsgs.exe but you
can't drag contacts on it.

- From the Outlook contact list, call someone through Messenger-based
IP phone calls (I use Internet telephony provider Callserve). If you
use the Call Contact option Outlook invokes the Windows dialer, not
Messenger.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction if I overlooked anything
that would let me do these things.

I'm using Outlook XP (ie. 2002) under Windows XP Pro with Windows
Messenger 4.5.

Olivier Travers
http://webvoice.blogspot.com

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

The modifications you suggest would all require programming, if they can be done at all. Windows Messenger has its own object model with some interesting methods and properties.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange Solutions
at http://www.slipstick.com

"Olivier Travers" <olivier...@bigfoot.com> wrote in message news:62a487a1.02010...@posting.google.com...

[Olivier Travers]

"Sue Mosher [MVP]" <sue...@slipstick.com> wrote in message news:<eivlkj8lBHA.2252@tkmsftngp04>...

> The modifications you suggest would all require programming, if they can
> be done at all. Windows Messenger has its own object model with some
> interesting methods and properties.

Thanks Sue, and thanks to Slipstick for the great Outlook material
found on your web site. I'm curious, do you see any demand for
Outlook-based instant messaging in the corporate market, or am I the
only guy caring?

For those interested, I posted more related thoughts on my blog at:
http://webvoice.blogspot.com/?/2002_01_01_webvoice_archive.html#8487731

including a fake screenshot to illustrate my ideas:
http://static.userland.com/weblogsCom/gems/webvoiceweblogscom/Outlook2004.jpg

Olivier Travers