Add-in command menu on MessageReadCommandSurface gets disabled in Outlook for Mac

Question

We have an Outlook add-in which uses add-in commands that works great in Outlook 2016 for Windows and OWA but has a problem in Outlook 2016 for Mac with menu type controls on the main Outlook Home TAB (MessageReadCommandSurface). For this type of add-in command the menu becomes broken in that you cannot select items past the first two items on the list.

As you cursor down the menu each button is selected but once you get to the 3rd item the selection disappears and you cannot activate any buttons. If you cursor up past the top of the menu you regain selectability for the top two items, but if you cursor down again the problem returns. Even menus with 2 items have a problem as if you move the cursor down past the bottom of the list the menu becomes inactive until you move the cursor up past the top and back down.

In case it was something we did I tried creating a super trimmed-down manifest with a simple task pane triggered from its two buttons:

    <DesktopFormFactor>
      <FunctionFile resid="functionFile" />
      <ExtensionPoint xsi:type="MessageReadCommandSurface">
        <OfficeTab id="TabDefault">
          <Group id="group1">
            <Label resid="strProdGroupName" />
            <Control xsi:type="Menu" id="menu1">
              <Label resid="strAbout" />
              <Supertip>
                <Title resid="strAbout" />
                <Description resid="lsOpenAboutTaskPane" />
              </Supertip>
              <Icon>
                <bt:Image size="16" resid="logo-icon-16" />
                <bt:Image size="32" resid="logo-icon-32" />
                <bt:Image size="80" resid="logo-icon-80" />
              </Icon>
              <Items>
                <Item id="item1">
                  <Label resid="strAbout" />
                  <Supertip>
                    <Title resid="strAbout" />
                    <Description resid="lsOpenAboutTaskPane" />
                  </Supertip>
                  <Icon>
                    <bt:Image size="16" resid="logo-icon-16" />
                    <bt:Image size="32" resid="logo-icon-32" />
                    <bt:Image size="80" resid="logo-icon-80" />
                  </Icon>
                  <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
                    <SourceLocation resid="aboutPage" />
                  </Action>
                </Item>
                <Item id="item2">
                  <Label resid="strAbout" />
                  <Supertip>
                    <Title resid="strAbout" />
                    <Description resid="lsOpenAboutTaskPane" />
                  </Supertip>
                  <Icon>
                    <bt:Image size="16" resid="logo-icon-16" />
                    <bt:Image size="32" resid="logo-icon-32" />
                    <bt:Image size="80" resid="logo-icon-80" />
                  </Icon>
                  <Action xsi:type="ShowTaskpane">
                    <SourceLocation resid="aboutPage" />
                  </Action>
                </Item>
              </Items>
            </Control>
          </Group>
        </OfficeTab>
      </ExtensionPoint>
    </DesktopFormFactor>

This simple menu reproduced the issue.

Some details:

1. The menu works fine if you pop out the email and use the menu from the email's Message TAB.
2. You have to open a task pane from the menu twice to trigger the issue.
3. Popping out an email then closing it restores the menu.
4. Issue does not occur in Outlook for Windows or OWA.

I realize this is a weird issue and might be something we are doing wrong, but testing suggests it isn't something we are doing.

Questions:

1. Has anyone else encountered this issue?
2. It would be ideal to try a different add-in which uses an add-in command menu on the MessageReadCommandSurface. Does anyone know of an Outlook add-in with such a menu that we can try? Maybe something free from the Store?
3. Any suggestions what we can try to nail down this issue?
4. Does anyone know of a known issues list for office.js add-ins running under Outlook for Mac?

Thanks

Answer 1

Thanks for letting us know. Will you be able to share the outlook and OS version? Also, are you able to repro it every time or is the issue intermittent?