Applescripting with Office

Question

Hey folks,
This is my first post here
I used to develop add-ons for Office suite on Windows XP/Vista/7. Now, I'm trying to develop the same add-ons for Mac OS X, but I'm facing some problems.
In Windows, I was able to catch events, like when the user open a window, when a user send an email, when a user saves a file, and also to change default windows of Microsoft Office, e.g., I was able to change the default save as window from Microsoft Word/Excel/Powerpoint, or the default new email from Outlook.
For Office Mac, I'm trying to do the same...
Here is a list of features I want to add:
For Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint, I want to grab the Save As window (when the user clicks on the save as button) and change the default save as window to add some new buttons. If this approach is not possible I would like to create a new window (defined by me) and cancel the opening of the default Office window.
For Microsoft Outlook/Entourage it's a little bit different: the first approach is to change the new mail window. I would like to get the default new window dialog and change it (e.g. add some buttons). If this operation is not possible I would like to have a listener that is activated when the user clicks the button send (in this case a new dialog will be opened).
Besides that, I would like to do some more operations: e.g. change the preview pane on mail item selection, change the default read window, etc.
Is it possible to implement these features via applescript? If so, where can I find information about that? (I already searched but didn't find useful information). If this is not possible via applescript, is it any other way to do it?
Thanks in advance,
rjpinto

Answer 1

Thanks for the reply,
red_menace wrote:
You can open an application's scripting dictionary in the *AppleScript Editor* to see what you can tell it to do
I have already opened the application's scripting dictionary, but I thought that some functionalities were hidden or accessible somehow...
red_menace wrote:
... there isn't a way to do something like add a button to an application window without editing and recompiling the application source files.
In my case I don't have any source files, since I'm trying to change the default Microsoft Office.
I understand that there is no way to add a functionality nor intercept and change stuff that the application does, but isn't it possible to add a custom toolbar/button that call an applescript? You can do it for rules, isn't it possible for toolbars/buttons? E.g., in Microsoft Outlook I would like to have to different compose mail windows: the default one, and another one created by me. The user could choose one or another according to it's wish.