Custom derfault message form works intermitently / inconsistently

[rick_fleischmann]

In Outlook 2003 (non-exchange) I had designed a custom message form and
set it to be the default for the inbox folder. Only the read page was
altered.

I implemented it using formswap, etc. It worked for months. Now, it
only works intermitently. Sometimes, a newly received message uses the
form and sometimes it uses the original IPM.Note. I can't figure out
why it doesn't work all the time anymore.

While trying to find out what happened, I came across the following two
pieces of info. They may or may not be relevant, because they were as I
am about to describe when the custom form worked all the time:

1) In the properties of the inbox folder, the default form to post to
the folder is IPM.Post, and I therefore can't set it to my custom form,
which is an offshoot of IPM.Note. I don't think I had this any
differently before, so it may not be relevant.

2) Also, in the "Manage forms" section of the inbox properties, I can
see my custom form, but the "Only forms listed above" checkbox under
the "Allow these forms in this folder" section is greyed out. Again,
the custom form was working before, and I don't believe I had that
checkbox checked. But now I'm wondering why it's greyed out.

Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The registry substitution method for displaying a custom form instead of the default form has never worked well for incoming messages in Outlook 2003 AFAIK.

Both #1 and #2 below are irrelevant to how message forms work.

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

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

 

[rick_fleischmann]

Hello, Ms. Mosher...I was hoping you'd be the one to answer. I follow
your prolific posting, and have enjoyed sample code from your site
often...You're great!

I believe that this whole loss of the custom default inbox form is
related to a crash that happened. I mention it because, at the same
time, I lost the ability to get into the VBA editor. Someone posted the
same problem, and I discovered that it had been disabled, probably as a
result of the crash.

So now I'm wondering if I should take Outlook completely off the
machine and reinstall...remember, this worked fine for a long time,
with Outlook 2003. I had in fact uninstalled and reinstalled Office
2003, but noticed that most of the settings survived the uninstall. So,
I'm thinking that I should uninstall again, then find all the registry
entries related to Outlook, and remove them prior to a reinstall.

You think?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Uninstalling and reinstalling is usually a waste of time. If you think Outlook is damaged, run Help | Detect and Repair.

But again, I caution that you shouldn't expect registry substitution to work on incoming message forms. Maybe if you explain what functionality you're trying to add, a better solution can be found.

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

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

 

[rick_fleischmann]

Well, I came up with a kind of solution...I wrote a VBA sub to change
the message class of all messages in the Inbox folder to the one for
the form I created, and which used to be the default they automatically
used. I then attached the sub to a new command button on the toolbar.

Now, when emails come in, I can just click the button, and all emails
in the folder get set to use the custom form. The new ones are, of
course, the ones I'm interested in.

Still can't understand why this has stopped working as the default form
used by new incoming messages, but this workaround works.

Rick

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Another approach would be to have the code work automatically, either through a rule or with Items.ItemAdd. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/code/zaphtml.htm

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

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