OutlookVim 8 and Outlook 2007: "Please install the plugin OutlookVim from www.vim.org to continue"

[Gary Johnson]

I just downloaded and installed OutlookVim version 8 for use with
Outlook 2007 running on a Windows XP system. I followed the
instructions for installing the macro to step 12, the last sub-step
for Outlook 2007: "Click on the new button in the Quick Access
Toolbar". The result is a pop-up window titled "Microsoft Office
Outlook" and containing the message:

OutlookVim: Please install the plugin OutlookVim from
www.vim.org to continue

I found that this message is displayed by OutlookVim.bas if

exists('g:loaded_outlook')

is false. But, I can open gvim from its Desktop icon, execute
that command and see that it returns 1.

I found the Wiki page that discusses this error. It suggests that
the files are installed in the wrong locations. Mine are here:

~/vimfiles/plugin/OutlookVim.bas
~/vimfiles/plugin/outlook.vim
~/vimfiles/plugin/outlookvim.js

I tried putting outlook.vim in C:\Program Files\vim\vimfiles\plugin
in case gvim couldn't find my $HOME. No difference.

I am running Vim 7.3.762.

What can I do to fix this or to troubleshoot it?

Regards,
Gary

[Gary Johnson]

I started looking more closely at the Visual Basic code, not that I
know anything about Visual Basic, and saw that it had to have found
an instance of gvim running but that that gvim instance had not
loaded the outlookvim.vim file.

Then it dawned on me that I always have an instance of gvim running
on that machine for keeping notes. That instance had been running
since before I installed the outlookvim.vim plugin, so if
OutlookVim.bas was asking _that_ instance if it had
g:loaded_outlook, the answer would be no.

I exited that gvim instance, made sure no others were running, and
tried again. Voil�!

Sorry for the noise, but maybe this will help someone else.

Regards,
Gary

[David Fishburn]

...

I started looking more closely at the Visual Basic code, not that I
know anything about Visual Basic, and saw that it had to have found
an instance of gvim running but that that gvim instance had not
loaded the outlookvim.vim file.

Good Morning Gary.

Unfortunately, only one instance of Vim can register as an OLE service at a time.

So yes, this is expected.

Glad you have it working now.

I will update the error message displayed in Outlook to indicate which Vim instance it had connected to when it found the plugin missing.  That should help future users.

I am putting the final touches on 9.0 which should complete the multi-byte support.  So this message will be part of it.

Thanks for the feedback.

David

[Gary Johnson]

David,

Thanks for your reply.

I am using Outlook in a corporate environment where almost all
e-mail is in HTML and replies to HTML messages are expected to be in
HTML. I read in OutlookVim.bas that you had tried detecting and
editing HTML messages and that it had worked, but was inconvenient
because of Outlook's horrible use of HTML.

If it's not too much trouble, would you please send me or post the
code you used to edit the HTML body?

Thanks,
Gary