I am in the process of making my first Outlook add-in and it would be really
great if you experts out there could point me in the right direction. Links
to good articles also appreciated!

What we have is basically a number of VBA macros that have evolved over
time. They are all reached through buttons in a toolbar of the Mail Message
window. We want to build a package to be able to install/uninstall all this
easily on other machines. What I have gathered so far is that I think we want
to make a COM add-in as we want to support everything from Outlook 2000 and
up.

So, my questions a

1) Is a COM add-in the right way to go? I understand the toolbar buttons may
be a challenge in 2007, but maybe there are some acceptable alternatives to
making a ribbon extension?

2) Can I keep coding in VBA/VB? I'm a long-time C++ programmer but not
having to port the current VBA codebase to another language/environment would
be great...

3) What's the most convenient way to make an installer for the add-in? I'd
also like the toolbar and buttons created at installation.

4) What developer tools do I need? Currently installed on my machine is
Office 2003 Professional, Visual Basic 6 and Visual C++ 6. (As always, it's
good if new license purchases can be kept to a minimum.)

Best regards
Mike Wilson