Again, I do not want to show any custom field in the Reading Pane. I would be plenty satisfied if the casual fields show there. So an add-in should fix my issue.

An again RMS works fine with the forms provided by Microsoft, why would it show the content differently when using a VBScript custom form? I will try to make a basic add-in to test with RMS. If you are interested, I'll let you know the result.

Getting Visual Studio 2005 install on my workstation may require some time however. I suppose the Express version will not do, but is the Standard edition enough or should I ask for the Professional? On the Microsoft sites, it says only the Visual Studio 2005 is needed, without any detail.

About the book you mentioned, is it "Professional Outlook 2007 Programming (Programmer to Programmer)" by Ken Slovak? Yet a few days to wait before delivery by Amazon...