Calling a custom Ribbon button in another Application from VBA - excel

Question

Normally my google skills aren't this bad. I am looking for a way to send an email with VBA and selecting a ribbon button. Basically I have a custom Ribbon button to encrypt emails, and I want it toggled on when the new email is created from VBA. I have been unable to find any samples. Any help would be appreciated
Sub SendMail()
Dim OutMail As Outlook.MailItem
Dim outapp As Outlook.Application
With Application
.EnableEvents = False
.ScreenUpdating = False
End With
Set outapp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set OutMail = outapp.CreateItem(0)
With OutMail
.To = "Email#place.thing"
.CC = ""
.BCC = ""
.Subject = "BACON"
.HTMLBody = "TESTING"
' .Send
.Display
End With
With Application
.EnableEvents = True
.ScreenUpdating = True
End With
Set OutMail = Nothing
Set outapp = Nothing
End Sub
So when a new email is created I want the "Encrypt" button pressed (see picture below) . It is a toggle button.
http://i.stack.imgur.com/JWwgO.png

Answer 1

Something like this should do the trick. I am able to successfully invoke a ribbon button's procedure in an external application (tested in PPT because I don't have a readily available Outlook Add-in with customUI, but same approach should work for Outlook, Word, etc.)
Option Explicit
Sub CallExternalRibbon(app As Object, _
AddInName as String, _
ModuleName As String, _
ProcedureName As String)
'###
' runs a specific procedure from another application/Add-in
' AddInName is the name of the Add-in's VBAProject
' ModuleName should NOT use Option Private Module
' ProcedureName should be declared Public
'
' May also require change to application's Trust Center settings
' (specifically: allow access to VBAProject Object Model)
'###
Dim externalProcedure As String
'## concatenate the procedure string
externalProcedure = AddInName & "!" & ModuleName & "." & ProcedureName
'## run the external procedure from that application
app.Run externalProcedure
End Sub
Call this like so, before the .Send. Modify the string arguments to your specific needs:
Call CallExternalRibbon(outApp, _
"AddIn_VBAProject_Name", _
"Module_Name", _
"Callback_Procedure_Name")
NOTES:
Not thoroughly tested, but works in simple cases. You may run in to some issues by starting a process thread in another application.
This will work for an Add-in that is created with CustomUI and XML/VBA callbacks. It may not work and has not been tested on any proprietary Add-in or other COM Add-in that you might have installed from a third party.