Pre-Populating From field in reply form for send as

[npne]

The scenario is a shared mailbox(es). Users want to be able to view the
mailbox and respond to queries. There are about 2500 of these. There is a
requirement that users do not need to type in the name of the mailbox in the
From field. Further, sent items should be stored in the shared mailbox in
addition to the users mailbox. Outlook 2003 with Exchange server 2003 on
Server 2003 all RTM versions.

Shared mailboxes are set up with Send As permissions. Users are given author
permissions to the mailbox root, as well as Inbox and Sent Items of the
shared mailbox. The shared mailbox is then added as a secondary mailbox to
each users Folders. The shared mailbox receives mail from Internet users not
defined in AD.

I thought of creating a custom message form and assigning it as a default
form to the shared mailbox inbox. The custom message form will have a Reply
Action defined pointing to another custom message form. In the reply message
form, I would like to dynamically populate the From: field and the cc: field
with the name of the mailbox, in order to avoid creating 2500 sets of these
forms. I tried populating the From field with [From], and CC field with
[From], but it doesn't seem to pick up the name of the shared mailbox, even
though the shared mailbox is highlighted. What should I be doing?

Where should these forms be published to, Organizational Forms Library or
Inbox folder of the Shared mailbox? When I publish to Inbox folder, I can't
set these forms as default form, or as the reply action form.

Further, I am having trouble publishing to the OFL, a MAPI error is returned
saying I do not have owner permissions. I am an Exchange Full Administrator.
What could be wrong?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

This is a job for a COM add-in, not a custom message form. A COM add-in can:

1) Wait for a new item to be created and in the Inspectors.NewInspector
event handler look at the current folder in the ActiveExplorer window and
determine whether it's the shared mailbox Inbox.

2) If it is the shared Inbox, set the SentOnBehalfOfName property of the new
message to the shared mailbox name.

3) Watch the Sent Items folder of the current user and when an item is added
there that was sent from the shared mailbox, move it to the Sent Items
folder of the shared mailbox.

 

[Victor Ivanidze]

Have a look at RightFrom and UniSent utilities at www.ivasoft.biz