Sales Tracking Form

[estilein]

I'm trying to create my first Outlook custom form and am struggling. By
reading through all the postings in this forum, I found the answers to about
half of my issues. I did, however, also notice that sample forms are
available. The Sales Tracking Form at
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...2A-3369-4B12-B966-A1E7094C578A&displaylang=en
sounds like it does almost everything I was trying to do, but it is for
Outlook 97. I only need the form on a stand-alone PC running Outlook 2003 on
XP, SP2. Was wondering if there's a version of the form/app that would work
for me?

Thanks for the insights!!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The form probably will work on all versions, assuming you can publish to the Organizational Forms library. You'll have to adapt the installation instructions to use the File | Open | Outlook Data File to open the installed .pst file.

 

[estilein]

Thanks for the quick response and sorry for the slow reply. I was able to get
the Sales Tracking app to load, but it didn't help as much as I had hoped it
would.

What I am actually trying to create is a way to track job leads. The way it
would work in my mind is that someone calls in and requests a quote. I, not a
salesman, would get all the initial information including things like name,
address, contact information, and a basic description of what they need.
There are some items that should be a part of the description that would
would like to be able to "report" on later (read: look at as categories).
Once the salesman gets assigned the quote, we want to be able to track future
phone calls (think: call log), start and end dates, and be able to set
follow-up flags.

The form only needs to be available on one PC now, but may at some future
date need to be sharable on a couple of them. (Right now, all of this stuff
is tracked on pieces of hand-written paper, and sometimes not all the
information is collected, which leads to extra calls to the customers before
the quotes can be generated and the jobs completed.)

I've tried basing the form off of the Contacts form, as well as the Task
form, but I can't get everything to work on either. Where I still need help:

I'm having the same problem I've seen a number of other people have: the
text boxes come up blank after a save. I have verified that in the Properties
of each field I have it set to Multi-Line, and have each field associated
with a different Value (type = Text, property = WordWrap ... tried just Text,
too). I am not using a Separate Read Layout. I didn't find anything else to
check in the other postings. What am I missing?

I changed the field labels and the captions for the phone number fields. The
values with which they are associated are Phone X Selected, which on the
print-out comes out saying Business, etc. instead of the names I gave them. I
added a drop-down list for the user to identify the type of phone, so want
the printout to read Phone 1, Phone 2, etc. plus the type I defined. How do I
change that? Do I have to create new user-defined phone number fields for
this? I'm having other issues with the printing, but haven't tried all the
suggestions I found at the outlookcode.com link you told others about yet, so
I'll hold off on those.

I added the date fields I mentioned above using the available fields in the
Field Chooser. They come over with a drop-down box, but not the calendar. I
read that it is not possible to get the calendar as on the existing forms
(bummer), but I can't get rid of the drop-down arrow that doesn't do
anything. Is there a way to do that?

I can't add follow-up fields to the updated Contact form, but I can flag
something for follow-up in the Address Card view. This, however, does not
cause anything to be added to the Reminders. Have to do that manually, or
have someone go to the view and see which items are flagged. Is there a way
to automate that?

Sorry about all the questions and thanks for the help!!

estilein

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

I'm having the same problem I've seen a number of other people have: the

text boxes come up blank after a save.

The most likely cause is that you haven't bound the text box to an Outlook property. In other words, Outlook has no place to store the data that the user enters. See http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=38

I changed the field labels and the captions for the phone number fields.

Changing the labels doesn't change the names of the fields, which is what will appear on the built-in print layout. If you want the printout to look different, see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=24.

Do I have to create new user-defined phone number fields for this?

Outlook provides no support for phone number fields other than those built in.

I added the date fields I mentioned above using the available fields in the
Field Chooser. They come over with a drop-down box

I've never seen that and don't know how to replicate the problem. You could just remove the control, add a text box, then bind the control to the desired field as described in the first link above.

I can't add follow-up fields to the updated Contact form,

Try adding them from the All Mail Fields list. It's won't work with all fields, but there are a few that this does work with.

but I can flag
something for follow-up in the Address Card view. This, however, does not
cause anything to be added to the Reminders. Have to do that manually, or

Reminders would be added in Outlook 2003 only for items in the default Contacts folder, not in any other contacts folders.

 

[estilein]

Thanks for the help, Sue. I think I've made it over most of the hurdles now.

All the fields that weren't keeping their data were bound to User-Defined
fields of type Text, but I'd given some of them the property of WordWrap
instead of leaving it at Text. Changing it back seems to have solved the
problem. Is there a list of the descriptions of the various properties
available so that one can determine when to use which one?

Btw, the graphic at http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?ID=38 highlights
the Choose Field item, but talks about Property to use. I know you can't set
the property without choosing a field, but it still took a while for it to
sink in what you were talking about when you said "bind to an Outlook
property". For those of us that are novices, it might be helful for you to
add an arrow or something pointing to the separate item that needs to be set.

Now that I know how to get the data to save with my fields, I can fix most
of my other issues by creating additional user-defined fields. As long as the
"Include this field for Printing and Save As" field is selected on the
Validation tab, they should print out when I print the item, right?
Formatting is not an issue as long as the field labels are the ones I created.

Years ago I know Microsoft had a WishList where one could submit wishes. If
it still exists, I'd like to add that reminders be available to be set from
custom forms, too.

Thanks again!