Filtering on a user-defined date field

  • Thread starter Thread starter Orion Lukasik
  • Start date Start date
O

Orion Lukasik

I do not profess myself to be a programmer or extremely knowledgeable with
Outlook forms. That said:

Using Outlook 2003, designing a custom contact form for a stores customer
database. I have created the custom form and set it as the default form for
the customer contact folder. That works fine. The form comes up when a new
customer is created.

Here is the question: I have four date fields in the form that I created
relating to membership dates: created, last renewed, next renewal, and date
joined. The properties for these field shows them as date fields, and I even
compared to the properties of default date fields in outlook. However, when
I attempt to filter the view on one of my user-defined date fields, I do not
get the logical comparators that relate to date; yesterday, last week, on or
before, after, etc. I get the standard logical comparators; contains, does
not contain, is (exactly), etc.

I would like my date fields to be useful for filtering. Any suggestions in
accomplishing this would be greatly appreciated.

regards, Orion Lukasik
 
Try deleting the date field from the folder. (This will not affect the
individual items.) Then add it back in, taking care to define it as a date
field.
 
Thank you for your response, Sue.

I deleted the field from the form, deleted the user-definition, and
recreated the field and replaced in the form. The situation is as it was
before. When I attempt to filter on that field, the date related comparators
are not there.

Any further suggestions are appreciated.

regards, Orion Lukasik
 
That's not quite what I suggested. I suggested that you delete the field
definition from the *folder*. It's the folder definition that filters use.
Don't touch the form, at least not at this point.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of
Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
 
Ok, I see. This is where my ignorance steps in, I don't quite understand
where a field definition exists within the folder, and not sure what folder
we are talking about. If it is the actual contacts folder we are refereing
to, I don't know where field definitions are within that.

I am working with a copy of the working form, so I haven't disturbed the
original form, yet.

Again, thank you so much for your help.

Orion Lukasik
 
Ok, I see. This is where my ignorance steps in, I don't quite understand
where a field definition exists within the folder, and not sure what folder
we are talking about. If it is the actual contacts folder we are referring
to, I don't know where field definitions are within that.

I am working with a copy of the working form, so I haven't disturbed the
original form, yet.

Again, thank you so much for your help.

Orion Lukasik
 
Fields defined on a folder can be seen in the folder view with data in them.
Right-click the column headings and choose Field Chooser. This tool lets you
add new fields to a folder and remove existing fields. See
http://www.outlookcode.com/d/fields.htm for a more detailed explanation of
the relationship between folder, form, and item fields and some recommended
practices.

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

That did it, thank you so much. What threw me at first was 'column heading'.
Since this was a contact form, there were no column headings, but the link
you provided explained what I was looking for, and as soon as I deleted and
recreated the field, it gave me the logical comparators in the filter.

It is working just like I wanted. Again, many thanks.

regards, Orion Lukasik
 
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