Reading Pane blank on Custom Form

[Tinyski]

Designed a Form and when I open the form I can see the message body but not
in the reading pane.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

If there is code behind the form, the reading pane will not display the
message body. That's a known limitation.

 

[Tinyski]

Thanks for the quick resonse Sue. Just a Date field with the "Date ()"
function that this count as code?. If it does is there a way to get it to
display?

tiny

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

"Code" refers to VBScript code written in the form's code window at any time
during the form's design. I am not aware of any issue with formula fields
causing the reading pane not to display the message body. Did you ever write
any VBScript code for this form? Dumb question, but does the body actually
contain text? The reason I ask is that it's possible to create a custom form
that has no body content.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

Nope no code. No I did not write any vbscript. Its a pretty simple form. No
not a Dumb question thought about that too. When i open the form it shows the
infomation that I added to it......Tried setting my security setting in
outlook to "Medium" Internet.

How I did it was:

1. Design form and selected Message.
2. Deleted the "body" control box because I want to be to have the labels of
the Fields to "read only".
2a. Unchecked "Seprate Read Layout"
3. Made custom fields, text only.
4. Dragged the fields from the field chooser and edit them for font and color.
5. Tried dragging some of the defalt fields to the message body to see if
this would make it show. didnt....

tiny

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

2. Deleted the "body" control box because I want to be to have the labels
of
the Fields to "read only". <<

If you deleted the message body control, then it sounds like your scenario
does
indeed fit my "dumb question" -- there's no place for the user to type the
message body. In other words, if the only visible data entry controls are for
custom fields, then the item has no message body and, therefore, what you're
seeing would be perfectly normal, What am I missing?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

Tested it by not deleting the message body, just resized it and added the
custom controls and fields to the "Grid" and sure enough did not show in
preview pane.

How do I make this work? Example of one of the custom fileds is called
"Outage Duration" and its text field for how long a system was unavaile.

tiny...

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

This may be belaboring the obvious, but the sender has to type something in
the message body before sending the message, or the reading pane will be
blank.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

Sorry Sue, I thought I said that before. I do the "Run this Form" and do
populate the fields. they show up when I open the message but not in the
reading pane.

This is Outlook 2003 fully patched. Tried adding one field to the field
chosser for this folder but that did not work either.

I know its something simple that I'm doing wrong...just cant find it...


tiny....

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm asking specifically whether "populate the fields" means that the user is
typing something in the message body -- not the other controls you've added
to the form, but the message body itself. The reason this is critical is that
the reading pane shows what's in the message body. Because you said earlier
that you removed the message body control from the form, my hunch is that the
reading pane is blank, because the message body is blank, and the message
body is blank because nothing was typed into it. In other words, the reading
pane cannot show the content of your custom fields. It shows only the message
body.

BTW, what version of Outlook are you using?
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

ok I understand. I'm the user that this form is sent to. I'm using O2003
fully patched. Tried a test. I added a custom field and resized the message
body in the forms design, then ran the form and added data in the subject
line, custom field and message body. Only the subject line and message body
idata s showing in reading pane. The message body is also resized to the full
pane.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

That sounds perfectly normal. The subject and message body will show in the
reading pane. Custom fields won't. That's how custom forms work. To see all
the custom fields, the user needs to open the item, thus displaying the form.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

Sue,

Thank you for you time. Is there anyway to make this happen?

v/r
tiny

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I assume that by "make this happen," you mean to display custom fields in the
reading pane? As I've tried to explain several times, that can't be done with
Outlook 2003. In Outlook 2007, however, you can use a form region to display
data in the reading pane.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Tinyski]

With doing this in Outlook 2007 with the data be availbale to Outlook 2003
and below clients.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at. If the data is stored in
custom fields, it's available in any Outlook version. But only Outlook 2007
has a mechanism for displaying that information in the reading pane.
--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook Programming: Jumpstart
for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers