Deleting user-defined field

[AF]

Hi,
I have a custom contact form that contains many user-
defined fields that are no longer required. Some of them
are contained in both the folder and the form. I can
delete them from the folder no problem, but I can't delete
them from the form. How do I do this?
I found an article from Microsoft that says to delete a
field from the form, open a new contact based on the form,
go to the All Fields tab and delete the field and then re-
publish the form. The problem is, when I choose the form
in the 'Select from' list, the Delete button is still
disabled for all of these fields.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Andrea

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

In the form, in design mode, go to the All Fields tab and switch to the
User-Defined Fields In This Item list. That's where you need to delete the
fields from the form.

 

[Hollis D. Paul]

I found an article from Microsoft that says to delete a
field from the form, open a new contact based on the form,
go to the All Fields tab and delete the field and then re-
publish the form. The problem is, when I choose the form
in the 'Select from' list, the Delete button is still
disabled for all of these fields.

You have remembered to go into Design Mode, haven't you. In which
case, you don't go to the All Fields tab, but find the field in the
actual layout of each tab and deleted it there.

When you have done all that, then you publish the form with a new name,
like NewFormA, where FormA is the old published name, or FormAver9.
Then you run the utility that changes the messageclass field for items
with MessageClass=FormA to MessageClass=FormAver9.

Be aware, that any of the data items that had real data in any of the
deleted fields, will still those fields in the items. They just will
not show on the forms tabs. You might be able to delete them in the
All Fields tab, now, though.

Hollis D. Paul [MVP - Outlook]
(e-mail address removed)
Using Virtual Access 4.52 build 277 (32-bit), Windows 2000 build 2600
http://search.support.microsoft.com/kb/c.asp?FR=0&SD=TECH&LN=EN-US

Mukilteo, WA USA

 

[AF]

Thank you both for your help, but I still can't fix the
problem.
When I selected 'User-defined fields in this item', these
fields are not listed. They are only listed when I select
from 'Oceanic' (The message class of my form is
IPM.Contact.Oceanic).
And the fields are no longer associated with controls on
the form, so the only place I can see them is from the All
Fields tab.

Thanks,
Andrea

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The All Fields tab is the right place to be working. If they're not in the
User-defined Fields in This Item list, then they're removed from the form.
Republish the form and you should no longer see them in the "Oceanic" list
as well.

 

[AF]

I guess I spoke too soon. I removed the field from 'User-
defined fields in this item' as you said, Sue, but it
didn't seem to work at first. Then once I did some
combination of opening/closing/creating new contacts or
something, the field was no longer in the list.

One more question, once I delete a field in this way,
shouldn't the deleted field and its value (if there was
one) still be visible from the All Fields tab under 'User-
defined fields in this item' when I open the contact? I
thought this was how it was supposed to work, but I don't
see it anymore.

Thanks,
Andrea

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

On an existing item using the custom form from which you have removed the
field, you will see the field in the user-defined list only if the item
contains a value for that property. In other words, removing the field from
the form doesn't alter the data on existing items. If the item had data in
that field, it will still be there and visible on the All Fields. If it
didn't, it won't show the field at all. Technically, an *item* doesn't
contain a custom field until that field actually has data. never contained
the field. Until the field has data, the field shows on the "user-defined
fields in this item" only if the field is part of the form definition.

 

[AF]

Sue, I understand that the field will only exist for a
contact item once a value has been entered for it, but for
the couple of fields that I have already deleted, the
field is no longer visible under 'user-defined fields in
this item'. The values seem to be lost. Do you know why
this is happening?

I'm not sure if this was the case for the fields that I
have deleted already, but for ones that I will be
deleting, I just noticed something odd: When I display the
field in table view, some contacts have a value for the
field, but when I open the contact itself and look in
the 'user-defined fields in this item', the field is not
listed. It is listed in 'user-defined fields in this
folder', but it shows no value! If I do a filter on the
contacts to show all whose value is not empty (either
through Outlook, or calling the Restrict method in code),
the contacts with a value are displayed! If I make changes
to the field value through in-cell editing, it is only
then recognized as a field in the item. Outlook is so
frustrating!!!

Thanks,
Andrea

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Comments below:

Sue, I understand that the field will only exist for a
contact item once a value has been entered for it, but for
the couple of fields that I have already deleted, the
field is no longer visible under 'user-defined fields in
this item'. The values seem to be lost. Do you know why
this is happening?

The symptoms would indicate those fields never had data in that particular
item.

I'm not sure if this was the case for the fields that I
have deleted already, but for ones that I will be
deleting, I just noticed something odd: When I display the
field in table view, some contacts have a value for the
field, but when I open the contact itself and look in
the 'user-defined fields in this item', the field is not
listed. It is listed in 'user-defined fields in this
folder', but it shows no value! If I do a filter on the
contacts to show all whose value is not empty (either
through Outlook, or calling the Restrict method in code),
the contacts with a value are displayed! If I make changes
to the field value through in-cell editing, it is only
then recognized as a field in the item.

I'm not sure why it would show no value in the All Fields page in the item.

But I have to question what you're doing: If you know that fields contain
data, why are you deleting them from your form definition and then worrying
about whether the data is still there? What's the grand purpose of this
entire exercise?