Question

Up until Office 2007 it was common for addins to add a tab page to the main Options dialog (Tools|Options) where users could configure the addin’s settings. While this essentially still works in Office 2010 the way it is implemented seems like a backwards-compatibility clutch similar to the “COM-Addins” tab on the new ribbon where buttons went that in previous versions would have been placed on a toolbar:

In order to get at an addin’s Options page you now have to go to Files|Options then switch to the Add-ins page and look for the “Add-In Options” button, click it and then select the relevant addin’s tab. I find it hard to believe that this is the way things are supposed to be, or is it? Surely there should be some way to put my addin options directly on the File|Options dialog?

Where can I find a document describing best-practices for addin developers that explains where to put my addin’s Options page (and how) in Office 2010?

Answer 1

I now found the following quote in the “Extending the User Interface in Outlook 2010” article on MSDN which was linked to from the “What’s New for Developers in Outlook 2010”-document:

“Consider customizing Backstage view
to replace the property page
extensions that were accessible when
you clicked Tools and then Options in
earlier versions of Outlook.”