Outlook 2003 customized contact information lost when emailing

[Guest]

As a volunteer for a charitable organization I have been attempting to
utilize a customized contact form. I have added customized information on
page tabs two and three. I have saved the customized form as a template, and
made it the default for the contacts subfolder for the organization. When I
attempt to email the customized form or form including the customized contact
information to another volunteer, the customized information is not retained.
Our organization is comprised of volunteer workers who use thier own
computers to track and maintain information. We do not use an exchange
server or web server. When trying to communicate information back and forth
via email, the customized information is not retained n the form, it reverts
back to the program default. I have tried checking the "Send form definition
with item" check box on the Properties tab without success.

I am sure I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel. How can this be accomplished?

Thank you for any assistance.

Flo

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

A customized contact form will work only if each person has access to the published form definition. Since you have no Exchange server, that means it must be published to the Personal Forms library for each user, wiht the "send form definition with item" box unchecked. Also, you will need to use rich-text format to mail these contacts as attachments, not HTML or plain text messages.

 

[flo257]

God bless your heart Sue!

I could have saved several weeks work had I known where to come for help. I
did as you said and it worked great when I emailed the test form(s) to
myself. The only oddity was that if I opened the form from the email, the
form reverts to the Outlook default. If I dragged the attachment to the
contacts subfolder created for our organization then the information was
intact including the customized fields. I anticipate it will work as well
when sent to the other Outlook users. (Once we get all them 'set up' with the
form definition.)

One more question; will this work for Outlook Express users also or for
those who utilize their ISPs email program?

Thank you again,
Your assistance will immediately benefit people throughout the NW Ohio area.

Flo

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

What are you actually mailing? "Test form" could mean several different things.

Outlook Express has no support for custom forms or custom fields, nor does any ISP's web mail. You're talking about features that work only with Outlook.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[flo257]

Hello again Sue,

By saying "test form" I am refering to a customized contact form that has
been saved as .oft and has been published to the organizations subfolder. It
has also been made default form for the subfolder. I opened a 'New' contact
form typed 'Test' into the name field and tried emailing to myself. When
that worked, I tried filling in several other fields from both the default
and custom fields with real information and emailing back to myself. That
worked too. Is there a problem I'm not seeing? Right now I'm just thankful
it works.

Thank You,
Flo

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Since you've published the form to a folder, only items in that folder will display data using the form, not items opened as email attachments. If you want contact items opened as email attachments to be able to use it, the form must be published either to the Organizational Forms library on an Exchange server or to each user's Personal Forms library.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54