Have problems changing default email form.

[Demon News]

I'm new to this so bear with me.

I wanted to add a new field to the form new emails use. I used an email from
the inbox and did a `design this form', then published the form to the inbox
folder with the new field added. My problem is that when I go to the `When
posting to the folder, use' and tried to set the default form to the new one
I get the error; `You cannot create an item of this type in this folder.'

I understand that the form an email message uses is an IPM.Note. So why then
is the default form for the Inbox IPM.Post ?

Am I missing something fundamental here?

Thx.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Messages are intended to be sent, not posted to folders. Therefore, the default form for a folder cannot be a message form. You can still launch the form from the Action menu in the Inbox.

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

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

 

[Demon News]

Thanks for your help Sue, looks like I'm having terminology problems as well
then. Not quite sure on the difference between `posting a message' and
`sending a message'.

Will Outlook allow me to change the form an email uses when it arrives in
the inbox? I seem to be able to get everything to work accept having new
messages automagically use the new form.

Yesterday, I did find a way of changing what Outlook uses as the default
email form with an MS app called Forms Administrator but it changes the
default form for *all* emails, which I don't want and requires a client side
reg edit which I would also like to avoid.

I was hoping that the user would not have to be involved in this process at
all as the forms aren't intended to compose new messages only allow a
tracking number to be added to messages arriving from the internet.

Any insights you could give me that might help achieve this would be great.

--
np


Messages are intended to be sent, not posted to folders. Therefore, the
default form for a folder cannot be a message form. You can still launch the
form from the Action menu in the Inbox.

--
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]]

Comments inline.

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

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

Thanks for your help Sue, looks like I'm having terminology problems as well
then. Not quite sure on the difference between `posting a message' and
`sending a message'.

On a message, the user has two basic choices -- to click Save or to click Send. One saves (by default in the Drafts folder), the other sends. A separate Post form is available for scenarios when you want to be able to create something that looks like a message, but doesn't have receipients, and is saved to a particular folder (not Drafts).

"Post" in the Outlook context means to create a new item and save it in a particular folder. If you use the post form to create a new item, you'll see that when it saves, it stores right into the Inbox.

Will Outlook allow me to change the form an email uses when it arrives in
the inbox? I seem to be able to get everything to work accept having new
messages automagically use the new form.

Yes, in Outlook 2003, this would require you to run code on your end to change the value of the MessageClass of incoming messages, not hard to do in a "run a script" rule that calls a VBA procedure like this:

A "run a script" rule action takes a MailItem or MeetingItem as its parameter, then uses that item in the code:

Sub RunAScriptRuleRoutine(MyMail As MailItem)
Dim strID As String
Dim olNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim olMail As Outlook.MailItem

strID = MyMail.EntryID
Set olNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set olMail = olNS.GetItemFromID(strID)
' do stuff with olMail, e.g.
olMail.MessageClass = "IPM.Note.MyCustomForm"
olMail.Save

Set olMail = Nothing
Set olNS = Nothing
End Sub

Yesterday, I did find a way of changing what Outlook uses as the default
email form with an MS app called Forms Administrator but it changes the
default form for *all* emails, which I don't want and requires a client side
reg edit which I would also like to avoid.

Furthermore, it's broken for incoming messages and for outgoing messages, has quite undesireable side effects.

I was hoping that the user would not have to be involved in this process at
all as the forms aren't intended to compose new messages only allow a
tracking number to be added to messages arriving from the internet.

The user as in just you? Or as in other people? If other people, then a COM add-in would be more appropriate than VBA code.