Taskpane Add-in is not available when using inline reply / forward in desktop Outlook

[Admiral-Skye]

Provide required information needed to triage your issue

Add-in is not accessible when using the inline reply / forward within the outlook desktop client. When the user clicks the button to reply or forward and they are presented with the draft email to compose, the add-in's ribbon menu item disappears and any opened takspanes are closed.

Your Environment

• Platform [PC desktop, Mac, iOS, Office on the web]: PC desktop
• Host [Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc.]: Outlook
• Office version number: 2302 Build 16130.20332
• Operating System: Windows 11

Expected behavior

I would expect that my add in which supports both the compose and reading view is accessible via its ribbon menu action while drafting an inline reply.

Current behavior

When the user is viewing an email and clicks to reply / reply all / forward using the buttons within the preview area, the screen changes to a compose view within that preview area and the add-in's ribbon menu disappears and is no longer accessible.

If I select to pop out my reply window OR use the reply options under the Home tab instead to reply in the pop-out window, i am able to access my add-in.

My taskpane also disappears when the user has it open then clicks to inline reply.

Steps to reproduce

1. Deploy a task pane app that is accessible in both compose and reading view.
2. Open an email to view in the reading pane
3. Observe that the add-in is available to be opened as a task pane
4. Click to reply using the inline buttons
5. Observe that the add-in's menu item has disappeared and is no longer accessible, and if opened the task pane dissappears.
6. Click to popout the reply
7. Observe that the add-in is available again and the taskpane can be re-opened.

Context

It seems like an oversight that i can access the taskpane when replying in the popout window AND when reading, but not when replying inline.

Many of my users will likely be using the inline reply to draft emails and would like to have access to my taskpane for its various features and utilities.

[Oleg-O]

In general, compose add-in commands on the ribbon should be available when using inline reply. We couldn't reproduce this immediately with current (more recent) builds and production configuration. Is it possible to share screenshots of ribbon and reading pane for both working and non-working case? That would likely be very helpful in better understanding of the issue.

[Admiral-Skye]

@Oleg-O I have to redact some bits of it, however I have colour-coded the add-ins to show the issue, My add-ins are the blue and pink ones.

They are both set up to be useable in both reading and compose mode however from the middle image, you can see that they are not being shown when composing an inline reply.

[Oleg-O]

Thanks a lot, this helped understand that this is an Office Tab scenario. We can reproduce this now. Yes, it's an oversight. Thanks for reporting this issue. It has been put on our backlog. We unfortunately have no timelines to share at this point.

Internal tracking id: Office: 7753575

[Oleg-O]

Also note: 1) If your custom tab does not have a lot of buttons, you could possibly work around this by not using a custom tab but instead adding your commands on the main ribbon 2) Mac Outlook does not support custom tabs yet as documented at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/javascript/api/manifest/customtab?view=powerpoint-js-preview

[Admiral-Skye]

@Oleg-O Thanks for your suggestions, unfortunately I won't be able to make use of these work arounds. I have made a note that this is a limitation for us.

[abc245]

I have a similar issue with a taskpane. I have a pinnable taskpane that stays there in both reading and message compose mode. However, if I reply to an email in both in-line and pop-out scenario - taskpane disappears. Is this an expected behavior?

[only-su]

Will this not be fixed for old outlook desktop? I still have this issue.