Custom Form missing information that used to exist.

[Guest]

Good morning folks...

I am not all that advanced with this subject, so I am going to provide as
much info as possible... hoping to be clear in my explanation of my issue.

I am using Outlook 2003 and have created a custom contact form. Within my
Person Forms Library, it is listed as a Message class of
IPM.Contact.Contacts. This form has been in use for over 6 months now and has
worked like a charm. The past few months, I have been updating and publishing
this form... but have yet to copy it over from the Forms Manager.

Yesterday, during one of my updates, I noticed that the "All Fields" tab of
my custom form underwent a change that has put a little fear in me. The
"User-defined fields in this item" had always mirrored that of which existed
in "Contacts" of the drop down. Today, "User-defined fields in this item"
still contains all of the custom fields that I had created... but "Contacts"
has become completely empty. I have gone back and reviewed other custom forms
that are currently active... and the mirroring still exists on them.

My fear is that I have a great amount of time and effort into building this
form over the last few months and that I have lost all that work? I am hoping
that this is not the case and I am afraid to continue working on it if that
is the case. I am a bit confused as to why everything still exists when I
select this form to design... but as I said earlier, I'm not the sharpest
knife in the drawer when it comes to these tasks... just lucky enough to have
gotten this far with them.

Any information or help on this would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so
very much for your time. Take care.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The

"User-defined fields in this item" had always mirrored that of which existed
in "Contacts" of the drop down. Today, "User-defined fields in this item"
still contains all of the custom fields that I had created... but "Contacts"
has become completely empty.

Could you explain in a little more detail what you mean by "'Contacts' of the drop down"? Also, when you describe what you see on the All Fields page, is that on your custom form or on an individual ittem?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your reply Sue...

Contacts is the name of the form that I created. When I go to the "All
Fields" tab of this form (in design mode), there is a drop down box
containing numerous options... one being "User-defined fields in this item"
and another being the form name (Contacts). It is these two that had always
mirrored each other with the created field information... but no longer do,
as "Contacts" is now empty.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not sure that's a problem. If the field definitions are there in User-defined Fields in This Item, then they're part of the form.

Of course, you have good backups, in the form of .oft or .fdm files, right?

How many fields does this form have?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You're skating on thin ice. I start getting nervous after about 125-150 fields. You may be starting to see the beginnings of the form corruption that inevitably occurs when a form becomes too large, with too many fields or too many formulas. There is no hard and fast limit, but the total form size can be no more than 32kb, excluding any body content or attachments.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You might want to look at one of the CRM applications that interfaces well with Outlook. THere are a couple of dozen; see http://www.slipstick.com/addins/contact_management.htm

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers