Problems editing message form in Outlook 2k3

[David Harris]

Ok, I've been having difficulties creating a custom form. Basically, we need
to use the same functionality and design as the normal "send email message"
form, as to not confuse our users. However, to better classify email, we wish
to append a "Project" field from a drop-down box so filtering and sorting
will work better.

First I tried creating a custom form but it didn't work, so I tried other
things but they were nasty hacks, so I'm back to the custom form. Basically,
the problem I'm having is that anytime I add a field, a control, or edit a
property in the default form in the designer, it reverts to what looks like
an Outlook 97 form. It doesn't retain the XP "pretty" style, and then I also
lose access to all but the Standard and Formatting toolbars. However, we wish
for it to look like the normal message form, just with that one dropdown box
added.

If you wish to review a more "fulltext" version, I posted a question to
Experts-Exchange, at
http://www.experts-exchange.com/Applications/MS_Office/Outlook/Q_21559799.html. I appreciate any help you can give me here or there. Thanks!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

One solution is to put your customization on a separate page. The first page would then remain unchanged.

Otherwise, what you're seeing is expected, normal behavior.

The real question is whether you should be using a custom form for this application in the first place. Sending a message created with a custom form to a non-Outlook external recipient normally will prevent that recipient from seeing any attachments. Have you considered using a COM add-in to add toolbar functionality to Outlook message items directly through the CommandBars collection?

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

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

 

[David Harris]

If I put my customization on a separate page, if we used that page for mail
messages, it would still wind up just as it is now, right? So either way, I'd
have to manually fix the buttons and colors and make sure all toolbars are
available.

I'm open to using any method that would make this easiest without reducing
any functionality of the normal message form. One idea I had would be if the
dropdown box were an object on it's own toolbar, similar to the Font or
HTML/RTF/Plaintext box. However, in trying to add such a thing, it seems no
option for that is available. Do you know if this is possible? Frankly, if I
could have a toolbar containing the dropdown box, that would actually be
better than editing a form.

Otherwise, I'm open to anything that will get it done. I didn't quite
understand your suggestion below, it sounded like I was to continue doing
what I was doing, only attach the CommandBars functionality through code. If
so, then we still lose the "pretty" form it defaults to, as well as any
customizations any users have made in regard to look and feel, so if that's
right, then I don't think that would help much. The idea is to make the
change unnoticeable to the user such that they won't freak out when new
things happen.

And it sounded like such a simple thing to do: add an input field to the
normal message form.

Thanks for your help, please let me know if you have more suggestions...

David Harris

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

As I indicated earlier, adding a new toolbar button is a common function of Outlook COM add-ins. No modification of the message form itself is involved.

You are absolutely correct about such toolbar functionality coming from the CommandBars collection.

Adding an input field to the message form *is* simple. It's all the other things you want to happen that are not possible. Recognize that Outlook uses a very old forms engine for its custom forms. .
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

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