custom form

[Charlie]

I made a custom form form my contacts (I use a number of fields that aren't
listed in the default viewing form). After publishing my form, I went to
properties of my contact folder and changed it to use this form... But when
I open up any of my contacts, they still open in the default form.
I've looked at http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm

I have Office 2003, and it don't quite understand if I can do what I'm
trying to do. I don't understand why it would be so hard to change the form
I want to use to view my contacts.

Could someone please tell me if I can indeed use my form and how to do it.
I don't want to mess up any of my settings. I used form swap in office XP,
but it sounds like it won't work right for office 2003?
thanks,
ck

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Among the properties on each contact is one called MessageClass, which you can display in any folder view as the Message Class field. It is this property that determines what form an item will use when you open it. Items you created before you published the form know nothing about that form and have the MessageClass of the default form, IPM.Contact. Therefore, to make existing items display your custom form, you need to change the MessageClass property of those items to the published class of your form, which will be something like IPM.Contact.Your_Form_Name. The page you cited lists a number of scripts and applications to do that for you. If you look at the scripts, you'll see that all they do is loop through the items in a contact folder, change the value of MessageClass, and save each item.

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

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

 

[Charlie]

Hi again, I think I will will docmessegeclass. What about new contacts that
I make on my pda and sync to outlook. ...what messegeclass form will they use?
Thanks,
ck

 

[Charlie]

one more thing. If my form doesn't work right, can I back to the old form,
maybe by running it again and using the original form IPM.Contact?
thanks,
ck

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Yes, you can change the MessageClass property value to anything you want, including back to IPM.Contact.

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

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

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

AFAIK, they will use IPM.Contact. Why not try it for yourself and see?

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

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