Import custom forms from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003

[bernd.paulmichl]

I have created custom forms in Outlook 2000 (Windows 98) and upgraded
now to Outlook 2003 (Win XP). What is the correct way to make the
custom forms also available in Outlook 2003? Is there a way to import
those forms or do I need to redesign them?
I would be very grateful for some advice.

Thanks
Bernd

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

You should need to do nothing if you did an in-place upgrade. Perhaps you haven't told us all the details yet?

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

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

 

[Hollis Paul [MVP - Outlook]]

I have created custom forms in Outlook 2000 (Windows 98) and upgraded
now to Outlook 2003 (Win XP). What is the correct way to make the
custom forms also available in Outlook 2003? Is there a way to import
those forms or do I need to redesign them?
I would be very grateful for some advice.

Well, presumably you published these custom forms to your Exchange
forms library, and you can just leave them there. Your new clients
will access them in the same way the old ones did. And the OFL is
migrated when Exchange is updated. You don't have to do anything.

Be advised that the names of objects sometimes change between Outlook
versions, so the code will not necessarily run correctly when you
upgrade the client. In that case, you need to determine what lines of
code are throwing errors, examine the new Outlook Object Model to
determine what the new names of the objects are, and rewrite the code
for use with the new Outlook clients.

You may also find that the newer Outlook clients raise security dialogs
as you programmatically access the address book, etc. You can avoid
these dialog boxes by using special Redemption objects. See
www.dimastr.com/Redemption .

 

[bernd.paulmichl]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply!

You are right, I should explain a bit more detailed. The PC is not on a
network and therefore we don't use exchange. It is setup as a single
user desktop PC for one of my customers. I have published the forms in
the outlook folder and it all worked fine. He was able to use the extra
fields in his contacts, fill them with data and use them to sort his
contacts.

The problem only started when he upgraded from Windows 98 to Win XP and
from Outlook 2000 to Outlook 2003. We have copied over the .pst file of
his old configuration but we can't find the custom forms anymore.

Thanks for your help!
Bernd

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Why (and where) did you copy the .pst file if this was an upgrade? Did you publish the forms to a folder or to his Personal Forms library?

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

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

 

[bernd.paulmichl]

Well for Windows XP it was a clean install so we also installed a fresh
copy of outlook.
The forms were published to the default location which outlook
recommended after designing the form.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Well that explains it in part. You didn't do an upgrade of Outlook at all. You did a new installation.

We have no way of knowing what Outlook might have shown you as the default location for publishing the form because we know neither the type of form, nor the steps you used to create it. If you published it to the Personal Forms library, you'll be able to access forms there only if you use the original .pst file as the default information store for the new Outlook mail profile.

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

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

Well for Windows XP it was a clean install so we also installed a fresh
copy of outlook.
The forms were published to the default location which outlook
recommended after designing the form.

Why (and where) did you copy the .pst file if this was an upgrade? Did you publish the forms to a folder or to his Personal Forms library?

 

[bernd.paulmichl]

I have published the form in IPM.contact. So if I understand you right
the only way to make the form available is using the original .pst
file.
Thanks for your help!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

IPM.Contact is the message class of the built-in default contact form. It is neither a folder nor a forms library. Therefore, it is not possible that you "published the form in IPM.contact." So, we still don't where you published the form. You should make it the default information store in Outlook, then look in the Personal Forms library and all the folders' forms libraries.

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

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

I have published the form in IPM.contact. So if I understand you right
the only way to make the form available is using the original .pst
file.

Well that explains it in part. You didn't do an upgrade of Outlook at all. You did a new installation.

We have no way of knowing what Outlook might have shown you as the default location for publishing the form because we know neither the type of form, nor the steps you used to create it. If you published it to the Personal Forms library, you'll be able to access forms there only if you use the original .pst file as the default information store for the new Outlook mail profile.

Well for Windows XP it was a clean install so we also installed a fresh
copy of outlook.
The forms were published to the default location which outlook
recommended after designing the form.

Why (and where) did you copy the .pst file if this was an upgrade? Did you publish the forms to a folder or to his Personal Forms library?

 

[bernd.paulmichl]

I have used the following macro to automatically change the old
contacts to use the published form. I have downloaded the macro
(Omsgclas.exe) from a microsoft website (Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article - 201087), maybe it explains into where I 'published' the form.
I remember changing the name so it was IPM.Contact.Bernd

Sub Item_Open

' Change the following line to your new Message Class
NewMC = "IPM.Contact.MyNewForm"
Set CurFolder = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
Set AllItems = CurFolder.Items
NumItems = CurFolder.Items.Count
' Loop through all of the items in the folder
For I = 1 to NumItems
Set CurItem = AllItems.Item(I)
' Test to see if the Message Class needs to be changed
If CurItem.MessageClass <> NewMC Then
' Change the Message Class
CurItem.MessageClass = NewMC
' Save the changed item
CurItem.Save
End If
Next
MsgBox "Done."
End Sub

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

No, that doesn't tell us anything about where you might have published the form.

Did you try what I suggested?

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

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

I have used the following macro to automatically change the old
contacts to use the published form. I have downloaded the macro
(Omsgclas.exe) from a microsoft website (Microsoft Knowledge Base
Article - 201087), maybe it explains into where I 'published' the form.
I remember changing the name so it was IPM.Contact.Bernd

Sub Item_Open

' Change the following line to your new Message Class
NewMC = "IPM.Contact.MyNewForm"
Set CurFolder = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
Set AllItems = CurFolder.Items
NumItems = CurFolder.Items.Count
' Loop through all of the items in the folder
For I = 1 to NumItems
Set CurItem = AllItems.Item(I)
' Test to see if the Message Class needs to be changed
If CurItem.MessageClass <> NewMC Then
' Change the Message Class
CurItem.MessageClass = NewMC
' Save the changed item
CurItem.Save
End If
Next
MsgBox "Done."
End Sub

IPM.Contact is the message class of the built-in default contact form. It is neither a folder nor a forms library. Therefore, it is not possible that you "published the form in IPM.contact." So, we still don't where you published the form. You should make it the default information store in Outlook, then look in the Personal Forms library and all the folders' forms libraries.

I have published the form in IPM.contact. So if I understand you right
the only way to make the form available is using the original .pst
file.

Well that explains it in part. You didn't do an upgrade of Outlook at all. You did a new installation.

We have no way of knowing what Outlook might have shown you as the default location for publishing the form because we know neither the type of form, nor the steps you used to create it. If you published it to the Personal Forms library, you'll be able to access forms there only if you use the original .pst file as the default information store for the new Outlook mail profile.

Well for Windows XP it was a clean install so we also installed a fresh
copy of outlook.
The forms were published to the default location which outlook
recommended after designing the form.

Why (and where) did you copy the .pst file if this was an upgrade? Did you publish the forms to a folder or to his Personal Forms library?