Controls don't appear in Message body in Custom Form

[girlkordic]

I have created a custom Outlook form based on a Message. Everything
worked like a charm, until the person requesting the form asked for the
ability to insert a file on reply. Upon reading this newsgroup, I
found that I had to put back the Message Control that I had deleted
when I started to created the form.
No problem, except now when I add textboxes that were on the form
before, they do not show up. In fact, I can't get anything to appear on
the Message control at all. All of my textboxes are already bound to
custom fields that I created. I need help figuring out why my
textboxes aren't appearing on the Message body at all. Any help would
be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

 

[girlkordic]

My apologies- I forgot to mention that I am using Outlook 2003.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The text boxes and message are all separate controls. You need to make sure that they're not overlapping so that all can be visible.

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

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

 

[girlkordic]

Well I need the text boxes to appear in the message body. I found
another posting that said the message control wasn't designable. So if
can't have textboxes in the message body, how do I customize the body
itself??? I can't seem to edit it at all... Please advise. Thank you!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Perhaps you could back up and start and the beginning and tell us what the purpose of the text boxes is and how you envision this form working. That will help us steer you toward a solution.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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

 

[girlkordic]

I want to send this form to the accountants in my office. There would
be text boxes on the form that would need to be populated by the
accountant with specific client information (client name, client
number, year end, etc.) That form (populated form) would then be sent
to someone else who would sign off on the form and possible attach a
file to it. Then that form would be sent back to the original owner
for storage.

How I created the original form: I designed the original form (based
on a message) by deleting the message body control and inserting a
large text box that would act like the message body. I then inserted
text boxes that would hold certain information.
All of my text boxes were bound to custom fields that I created.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

It makes sense but it doesn't tell us everything about how you want the form to behave. You have two choices; pick one:

1) The recipient sees the text boxes that the accountant filled in PLUS the message body box box.

2) The recipieint sees only the message body box, which contains in plain text or HTML format (pick one) the information that the accountant filled in.


Note that a better term for a populated form is an item. The form is a UI/code template and in most applications, is not sent with the item.

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

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

 

[girlkordic]

My apologies... perhaps part of my problem is I'm not sure exactly how
the form is to behave. This is what I believe the powers that be want
to occur:

The form will be addressed to a recipient (both in the TO: box as well
as a salutation text box). On the form will contain information about
a specific client that is filled in by the sender. The recipient then
receives the item, types his signature in another text box at the
bottom of the form indicating approval and sends the item back to the
original sender. I believe that "they" would like to see empty boxes
on the form (so the accountant knows where to input information). So I
am thinking that option 1 is what we want to go with. I have actually
tooled around with it a bit today, and added the message body box at
the bottom of the custom form. It works okay but it keeps inserting my
autosignature there, despite my best efforts. Not sure if that's a
whole different problem though. Thanks for your patience.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Ah, since "powers that be" are involved, I'd suggest that you do some mockups and show them what you have in mind and get them to explicitly sign off on the UI. You don't want to put it together one way then have them tell you to rip it apart and do it differently later.

The autosignature is a whole different problem. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/ol2003problems.htm#sp1.

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

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

 

[girlkordic]

Good idea, luckily or not (for me) I'm the only person in this
organization that knows anything about creating custom outlook forms.
We may be talking again. Thanks for your help.