Changing Forms

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Guest

I would like to modify the default form for outlook 2003. I simply want to
add a few of the default fields to the forms.

I want to change the inbound e-mail as well as the outbound e-mail forms. I
can create the new form without any problem. But when I try to change the
default form I get an error stating that I cannot use the form in the inbox
folder.

I also want to change the task and calander forms, but I want to fix this
first.
 
A message form cannot be the default for a folder because messages are intended to be sent, not posted to a folder. Furthermore, using a custom form for messages going outside your organization is generally a bad idea, as it will prevent any non-Outlook users from getting attachments. Maybe it's time to reconsider whether a custom Outlook form is the right solution for your scenario.

If you insist on changing the default message form, though, you must make a registry change to substitute your custom form for the default form. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm#changedefault .. Note that it doesn't work completely for message forms in Outlook 2003.

FYI, there is a newsgroup specifically for Outlook forms issues "down the hall" at microsoft.public.outlook.program_forms or, via web interface, at http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...spx?dg=microsoft.public.outlook.program_forms


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

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Thanks for the tip on posting to the other forum. In the future I will post
there.

But as for this question, I have a followup:

All I want to do is to add the contacts and category fields to the inbound
and outbound message forms to make it easier to remember to complete them. By
making this change, my receivers will not be able to open my messages? I
guess that I really do not understand.

Also, does it change things that I am using business contact manager? It
seems that my contact form canot be modified at all????
 
All I want to do is to add the contacts and category fields to the inbound
and outbound message forms to make it easier to remember to complete them. By
making this change, my receivers will not be able to open my messages? I
guess that I really do not understand.
Click to expand...

If you use a custom form to create a message to a non-Outlook recipient and that message contains an attachment, the non-Outlook recipient will not be able to open the attachment. Since you can never know what mail program someone else is using, that makes using a custom form for outbound messages a bad idea.

If you want to convert incoming messages to use a custom form, you can do that by running code to change each item's MessageClass to the class of your published custom form. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/zaphtml.htm for various ways to process incoming messages.
Also, does it change things that I am using business contact manager? It
seems that my contact form canot be modified at all????
Click to expand...

That's a totally separate issue. See http://blogs.officezealot.com/cardoza/archive/2004/05/12/652.aspx. FYI, there is a separate newsgroup for BCM issues -- microsoft.public.outlook.bcm
 
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