"On the Fly" User-Defined Fields

[LGriffith]

Before I persue this, I thought it might help to ask
first. I'll try to be brief.

I've built a custom Contact form with a Custom Tab or two.
One of the Custom Tabs contains "Publication Information"
for magazines. Information stored includes size of
magazine, distribution counts, number of pages, etc.

But what if there are multiple publications? Is it
possible to add/remove "sets" of User-Defined fields for
individual Contacts? My thought is I cannot do this
because it would create a custom form (for lack of a
better way to think about it) every time I created New
Publication Information Field Set. One could have 1
publication, while the next could potentially have many.
Also, it seems it would be a problems for the User-Defined
fields within the folder the Contact was stored within,
due to the "on the fly" nature of what I'm attempting.

Can it be done? If so, could someone turn me, and push me
in a direction?

 

[LGriffith]

-----Original Message-----
Before I persue this, I thought it might help to ask
first. I'll try to be brief.

I've built a custom Contact form with a Custom Tab or two.
One of the Custom Tabs contains "Publication Information"
for magazines. Information stored includes size of
magazine, distribution counts, number of pages, etc.

But what if there are multiple publications? Is it
possible to add/remove "sets" of User-Defined fields for
individual Contacts? My thought is I cannot do this
because it would create a custom form (for lack of a
better way to think about it) every time I created New
Publication Information Field Set. One could have 1
publication, while the next could potentially have many.
Also, it seems it would be a problems for the User- Defined
fields within the folder the Contact was stored within,
due to the "on the fly" nature of what I'm attempting.

Can it be done? If so, could someone turn me, and push me
in a direction?
.
Ok, I guess not through Outlook or no-one has an answer,

or this is something that has been asked about before and
I'm unable to find the reference.

Seems the solution is in using an external database, like
Access. Shouldn't be too hard to do, since I can already
access Word and Excel from Outlook to output reports and
such. I wanted it to be self-contained but it seems
tantamount to impossible.

Thanks, anyway.

 

[LGriffith]

-----Original Message-----
Before I persue this, I thought it might help to ask
first. I'll try to be brief.

I've built a custom Contact form with a Custom Tab or two.
One of the Custom Tabs contains "Publication Information"
for magazines. Information stored includes size of
magazine, distribution counts, number of pages, etc.

But what if there are multiple publications? Is it
possible to add/remove "sets" of User-Defined fields for
individual Contacts? My thought is I cannot do this
because it would create a custom form (for lack of a
better way to think about it) every time I created New
Publication Information Field Set. One could have 1
publication, while the next could potentially have many.
Also, it seems it would be a problems for the User- Defined
fields within the folder the Contact was stored within,
due to the "on the fly" nature of what I'm attempting.

Can it be done? If so, could someone turn me, and push me
in a direction?
.
Ok, I guess not through Outlook or no-one has an answer,

or this is something that has been asked about before and
I'm unable to find the reference.

Seems the solution is in using an external database, like
Access. Shouldn't be too hard to do, since I can already
access Word and Excel from Outlook to output reports and
such. I wanted it to be self-contained but it seems
tantamount to impossible.

Thanks, anyway.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

Adding fields on the fly is a terribly bad idea causes an item to one-off, with the form definition embedding itself in the item. This makes the item much bigger and, in most Outlook environments, means that any code behind the form won't run.

If it were my project, I might take a relational approach and store the publication information in separate items, then use a list box to show them on the form.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Outlook and Exchange solutions at http://www.slipstick.com
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.slipstick.com/books/jumpstart.htm