Template/Form used by multiple users

[Liz]

I'm trying to create a form (Purchase Order Request Form) which our remote
users can e-mail. They are currently faxing the forms in (and we fax back) or
they are e-mailing the forms in as attachments and we e-mail attachments back.
I am trying to get away from the attachments and the faxing, so I'd like a
template that can be e-mailed to them, saved on their computers, and used
repeatedly. Here are the specifics:
*Certain parts of the form (headers, etc.) need to be "protected" with
editable fields
*They can submit the form with misc. info, and I can e-mail it back w/ a PO
number.
*Must be easy for them to install and use over and over

What is the best option? I've looked through the comments and can't find
anything, tried using a form template, but I don't have a "Publish Form"
option (only use and design).

THANKS!

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

There is no easy solution to those requirements. The only way you'd be able to get such a form to work is if it's published to the Organizational Forms library on the Exchange server or to each user's Personal Forms library.

You didn't say what version of Outlook you're using.

 

[Liz]

Using 2003. I think I can get our administrator to publish it to the Org.
Forms library on the exchange server if needed.

Would this eliminate each remote user having to do the Tools|Options|Forms|
and checking / unchecking using Microsoft Word as an editor?

Ideally, they'd just "have" the form on their system, select it, type into
it, and send it - no attachments, etc. Would creating a form and publishing
it to the Org. Forms library accomplish this?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

In the user's Send/Receive group settings dialog, there is a check box for downloading custom forms. If this is checked, forms in the Organizational Forms library should be available to remote users, who can select a form by using the Tools | Forms | Choose Form command. Whether Word is the editor makes no difference to the operation of custom forms.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming:
Jumpstart for Power Users and Administrators
http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=54

 

[Liz]

Thank you - I'm giving this info to our IT guy who is a lot more familiar
with this than I am! Hopefully he can make it work.
THanks again!

 

[dch3]

I would investigate using Adobe Acrobat. It has the capability of creating
documents with form fields whose values can be scraped once received and
capturing into a database. I have not worked with it personally, however my
organization is very actively pursuing the functionality given the hundreds
of thousands (yes 100,000+) orders that we process on an annual basis. As Sue
probably mentioned, using an Outlook Custom Form isn't the best choice since
the external users *MUST* use Outlook and you'd have to come up with some way
to distribute the form and any subsequent updates to it. You might also want
to consider an ASP based solution where your users simply log on to a website
to place the order.

David H