Using Combo Boxes in Custom Forms

[Noah S.]

I am very new to custom field and form creation.

To enhance Outlook's Task functionality, I have made a custom form and added
a custom field (combo box) called "Projects". Every time I create a new task,
I want to populate the Projects field to associate the task(s) with a
project. If I have previous added the project, I just want to pick it from
the list.

Problem is, no matter what I do, I can't seem to tie my combo box dropdown
list to the Projects field. Is there any special code I'm supposed to add?
Right-clicking the combo box shows me Properties and Advanced Properties.
What am I supposed to do to make this work?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Choose Properties, then switch to the Value tab. Click Choose Field and
select your Project field. Then republish the form.

 

[Noah S.]

Thank you for your reply... I did as you suggested, but it had no effect. I
configured the the custom combo box and associated the new Project custom
field with it on the properties\value tab and republished the form.

I then manually entered my first project and saved the task. When I opened a
second task and went to the combo box it was blank; it showed no trace of the
first project I entered on the previous task.

So I'm confused. Your advice was right in line with the MS Outlook help
file, but seemed not to work. Just to check, I associated a standard outlook
(non-custom) field with the combo box, thinking there was something wrong
with my custom field, but that didn't work either. One Outlook book I looked
at suggested that you would need to use VB to associate a combo box with a
particular field, but that seems extreme since the ability to associate a
field of my choosing was right there.

Any other thoughts?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

The data you entered for the first item is stored with the first item. The
second item has no knowledge of what data is stored in the first item. This
is normal, expected behavior. If you select a value from the combo box (or
type one in) on the second item, then that value will be stored for the
Project property on the second item.

I gather, though, that you're expecting something different to happen. Can
you paint the picture for us?

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[Noah S.]

Forgive me if my descriptions have been confusing; I've tried to be brief and
to the point.

Put another way... When I created A modified Outlook task form, Outlook 2003
does not let me modify (add custom fields) to the main TASK tab; in design
mode, it only allows me to add fields to some of the other tabs and the
DISPLAY them. So I created a custom text field called PROJECT onto one of
those other tab pages on the task form and published the form. It all worked
great.

After a while, I decided I was fed up with needing to manually enter the
name of the project in that custom text field every time I created a new task
related to a project I had already entered.

I realized that instead of using a text field to a combo box using the
control tools in form design mode and "link" the combo box to the Project
field I had already created. By your previous suggestion, I right-clicked on
the combo box and went to the Properties | Value tab to facilitate the link.

I saved my changes and republished the form. My expectation was when I come
into the form, instead of the old text field where I manually entered the
name of each project a task was related to, it would be a dropdown box
showing me all the values that had ever been entered into the my custom
Project field OR allow me to enter a whole new Project name. BUT, no project
names show on the list (even though the field has been populated with many
project names), If I enter a project name into the dropdown field, it lets me
save it. When I come back into the same task, the project name I entered is
displayed, but ON THAT TASK ONLY!!

If I create a whole new task and go to the dropdown box, it's empty. It's
almost as if it's behaving as an input only combo box, not an input and
display. Which brings me to this forum. If I created a combo box linked the
this custom Project filed I created, why don't the names of all projects I
have entered into this field show as a list whenever I create a new task
using this custom form?

Thanks for any insight you can offer.