How can I route an Outlook Form for approval?

[twaterman]

I am looking for a way to create a "Time Off Request" via an Outlook Form. I
thought there was a way to set up forms for routing and approval. Does
anyone have some insight to this? Please advise. Thank you.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Have you looked at the voting buttons feature?

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

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

 

[twaterman]

Yes, I am looking for a function that will allow an employee to request time
off, route the request to their immediate supervisor who would approve, and
route on to the next level of management for approval and ultimately to the
administartor who would update the dept calendar.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

That would require:

1) Exchange as your mail server
2) Ability to publish a custom form to the Organizational Forms library
3) A custom message (not appointment) form with code behind it to send it on to the right person, depending on the action taken. The sample code from my book (http://www.outlookcode.com/member/book.aspx) contains a vacation request form in Chapter 20 with one level of approval that could get you started.

You could also potentially do something like that with Exchange workflow, if the Exchange administrator permits such applications to run on the server. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/en-us/exchanchor/htms/msexchsvr_cdowf.asp

Another possibility would be InfoPath, if you are using the volume license version of Office 2003 Pro.

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

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

 

[E. Ethridge]

I'm in the process of using infopath to develop a form similar to this for
use in my office. The process is fairly simple and quite painless.

Regards,
Eric

 

[Loux at work]

Twaterman -- Did you ever get this to work? I am looking to do the same
thing in my office -- route for approval an e-mail.
Thanks