How to create and call Microsoft Custom Form in Outlook 2003 Mail?

[Naval kishore]

Hi Experts,

This is my current requirement for which I am looking for a solution
desperately.

I have to create a Microsoft Custom Form having Command Butons and TextBoxes
in which the values will get populated from an MS-Access Database.

Then, I have to call this form whenever a user clicks on a mail existing in
the Outlook 2003 Inbox.

The form should open up inside the message(body of the mail) window when I
open the mail.

I have searched many avenues but I have not found any success on how to do
this.

I would appreciate any sample code, documentation and ideas on how to do the
same

Warm Regards,
Naval Kishore

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The form should open up inside the message(body of the mail) window when I

open the mail.

That's not how custom forms work. The body of the message is one among many elements of a form, not a container for the form. In other words, the body appears on the form, not the form inside the body.

I have to create a Microsoft Custom Form having Command Butons and TextBoxes
in which the values will get populated from an MS-Access Database.

These pages have information to assist you:

http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=35 - basics on creating Outlook forms
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=25 - connecting Outlook with databases

The event that fires when a form opens to display is Open, so you probably would want to put your VBScript code to connect with the database in the Item_Open event handler.

Then, I have to call this form whenever a user clicks on a mail existing in
the Outlook 2003 Inbox.

To get an existing message to open with a custom form, you must change the MessageClass property of the message to point to your published custom form. The default value is "IPM.Note." To use a custom form, the value would need to be "IPM.Note.MyForm" or whatever the class is of the custom form. There are several possible ways to process incoming items to make this change; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=62. If this application is for your personal use, you can handle that task in Outlook VBA. If it's for other people, you should be looking at building an add-in.