Updating Existing Items with Versions of Custom Form

[Shawn Barrick]

We're using Outlook 2003 (SP2) in a NON-Exchange environment, and I'm
trying to work through the logic updating custom forms.

1. Open the form (IPM.Contact.fcms-0.7.9), make changes, and bump up
the version number in the form properties.
2. I save this as an .oft, and use one of Sue Mosher's scripts so users
can publish it to a folder in Outlook.
3. New items created use the updated version of the form, but existing
items do not.

Am I missing a step here to allow existing items to use the updated
form? Should this be happening on it's own?

I've seen the Microsoft tool and other products on the Slipstick page
to update existing items, but at this point I'm trying to distinguish
Outlook's expected behavior from bugs in the process. I've seen
reference to clearing the forms cache in case of problems, and renaming
the form's Display Name.

Thanks,
Shawn Barrick.

 

[Guest]

I think I am posting the same question, sort of. I created a new "Contacts"
folder and every item in that folder in using my ICM.Contacts.xxxx format. I
want to copy other items into that folder from various contact lists which
have been previously created. But it seems to bring the old format. How do
I copy over items and have it use the new form for those?

 

[Hollis Paul [MVP - Outlook]]

I think I am posting the same question, sort of. I created a new "Contacts"
folder and every item in that folder in using my ICM.Contacts.xxxx format. I
want to copy other items into that folder from various contact lists which
have been previously created. But it seems to bring the old format. How do
I copy over items and have it use the new form for those?

Here is how to think about these things. The Data Item is a formless collection
of fields, most of which are blank, but many you have put data into them using a
form. So it is sort of like Genesis. In the beginning all was void and
formless...Then the creatures at Microsoft said: "Let there be forms!..." And
the data appeared in controls on the form in a multitude of colors, fonts,
and... One of those fields, named MessageClass, contains the name of the form
to be used to display the form. Now, when you pull in a Data Item from another
Contacts folder, you get all its fields, including the MessageClass field, and
all the data that was stored in those fields, including the name of the form to
display the data, using the form that allowed you to enter the data, etc.
(Finding the true beginning is worse than counting begats! But someone out there
surely claims that it could not have been before 1986. And others claim 1988.
They have armed themselves and both say that Microsoft is on their side, and
they shoot wildly at anything that moves, and a lot that doesn't.) The moral of
this story is that you need to run a utility that will change the MessageClass
field from the old name to the new name. You can't do it by just finding the
field in the All Fields display and changing it there. No, no! That would be
too easy. You have to track down the Wiley coyote, who will only trade you the
utility for the roadrunner.... It is easier to go to www.outlookcode.com and
search on "default form" in the articles, and all will be revealed