Custom Form (Outlook 2003 and Exchange 2003)

[Legal Learning]

This mail form was put on the desktop as a shortcut. It is an oft. We have
always been able to design it and change it but now it won't save the
changes. Has anyone seen this?

It is a mail form and it currently has email address values and we simply
want to change the value of the to and cc fields. We have done this before
with success.

Does it matter if this form was created in Outlook 2000 and Exchange 2000?

I hope I have posted this in the right place. Thanks for any help. I have
tried just about everything short of creating a new form.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

If you want to save the changes to the .oft file, you must use the File |
Save As command to write those changes to the file system.

 

[Legal Learning]

Sue,
I have done the File Save As and it still comes back with the old
information. The custom form was built in Outlook 2000 with Exchange 2000 so
I rebuilt the form in 2003. Here is what is happening now:

I built a bunch of user defined fields and placed them on the message part
of the form. It saves fine with the file, save as command. When used the
fields appear fine and I can enter information into those fields. However,
when I send this form (it's a mail form), the recipient only gets the to, cc
and subject fields displayed. All of my user-defined fields are simply not
there. Do you know why??? This is making me nuts.

CG

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

User-defined fields generally won't work in form templates, i.e. oft files.
Instead, you need to be working with a published form. And since it's a
message form, it needs to be published to the Organizational Forms library
on the Exchange server or to every user's Personal Forms library. See
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61 for more information on this
key issue.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Legal Learning]

They sure worked in oft on 2000 systems because I personally revised this
form and it resides on a network location with .oft. Must be a legacy thing
then. I normally publish on the organizational forms library too. They want
it to reside on their desktops as a shortcut to the form. So, it sounds like
this simply will not work, right? You are the pro here. Actually, you are
more than a pro! Thanks for your help, Sue.

 

[Legal Learning]

Ok, I'm an idiot! I didn't do the read page. What an idiot - I know better.
You rock Sue. If it were not for your article, it would not have triggered
yet. Thank you again for your unbelivable brain. I am compelled in reading
your book cover to cover. (Not that it will make total sense to me but I
will try).

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

The article at http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=56 explains how to
set up an outlook.exe shortcut to launch a published custom form. I'm glad
you figured out your other problem.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54