Custom Form not displaying

[B-Rock]

Hi All,

I am wondering if anyone can help me or have come previously across this
problem I have.

As a background, I have used custom outlook forms for a couple of years now
(since OL 2000), but have never had these problems before. The only problems
I’ve ever encountered was when I have made small changes to my forms and have
had to clear users’ cache, and all was fine.

I have recently created a number of new custom forms based on the IPM.Note
Message Class. I do not use VB Script for these forms.

The forms work as a semi-workflow process, initiated by one form in the
beginning. All forms are saved in the Organisational Forms Library and are
unique. (I am having problems with all the new forms, but I’ll only focus on
the originating form).

As the first form needs to be distributed to a number of different people, I
have saved it as an .oft file and have it on our company's intranet (people
apparently find it too complicated to go Tools -> Forms -> Choose Form, or
add a button to their toolbar...).

As I am the developer of the form, it all works fine for me. However, when
anyone else tries to open the .oft, they don’t get my custom form, but the
standard “New Message†(IPM.Note) form. I have set initial values for the
Subject and To fields, and these do come across fine, but that is about all
that resembles my custom form.

Apart from this, I have noticed that if I get someone else to design and
publish the form, they can then open and view the .oft fine from here on in.

It originally seemed like a cache problem to me, and despite clearing the
cache (both from within outlook and manually) the symptoms persist.

Any suggestions?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

For your forms to function fully, users should be launching the form published in the Organizational Forms library. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/launchform.htm for ways to make this easier.

If the first form has no code behind it, it would still be workable, but users with Outlook 2003 SP2 will have to open it with the Tools | Forms | Choose FOrm command.

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

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

 

[B-Rock]

Hi Sue,

Thanks for your feedback. As I noted in my post, people find the "correct"
way of opening the form too complicated (I'm talking about having up to 300
people having access to the form with the potential need for using it).

In any case, I have found a solution - I implemented a registry key to allow
my custom forms to add custom field properties. This has fixed my problem.

For anyone who's interested, here is the key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail]
"AllowMSGFilestoCreateProps"=dword:00000001

(The default is 0).

I would recommend that anyone who may be thinking about implementing this,
to take a look at the MS KB article titled "Changes to custom properties in
Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2"

Here is the link:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=907985


Thanks again Sue.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

As that article recommends, a published form would still be a better solution, and you can easily create desktop shortcuts to launch published forms.

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

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

Hi Sue,

Thanks for your feedback. As I noted in my post, people find the "correct"
way of opening the form too complicated (I'm talking about having up to 300
people having access to the form with the potential need for using it).

In any case, I have found a solution - I implemented a registry key to allow
my custom forms to add custom field properties. This has fixed my problem.

For anyone who's interested, here is the key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Options\Mail]
"AllowMSGFilestoCreateProps"=dword:00000001

(The default is 0).

I would recommend that anyone who may be thinking about implementing this,
to take a look at the MS KB article titled "Changes to custom properties in
Outlook 2003 Service Pack 2"

Here is the link:
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=907985


Thanks again Sue.

For your forms to function fully, users should be launching the form published in the Organizational Forms library. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/launchform.htm for ways to make this easier.

If the first form has no code behind it, it would still be workable, but users with Outlook 2003 SP2 will have to open it with the Tools | Forms | Choose FOrm command.