Microsoft Outlook Custom Forms

Overview

These references also provide a brief introduction to the forms creation process:

• Creating and distributing custom forms with Outlook -- tutorial on basic forms layout and publication; does not cover coding.
• Developing Custom Forms Using Microsoft Outlook 2002 (Part 1) and Part 2
• Support WebCast: How to Create Custom Contact Forms in Outlook 2000 -- half-hour introduction to building forms
• Create custom forms by using Visual Basic Scripting Edition
• Chapter 2: Outlook Design Tools, from Building Applications with Microsoft Outlook 97
• Developing Applications with Microsoft Outlook -- presentation by Sue Mosher, including slides, source code and white paper
• Microsoft Outlook Forms and Templates -- Form basics for Outlook 97; online chapter from Microsoft Outlook E-mail and Fax Guide
• Outlook Forms and VBScript -- Chapter 2 from Developing Applications Using Outlook 2000, CDO, Exchange, and Visual Basic
• Customize Outlook Forms -- Walks through the basics of creating a message form and a related reply form. Does not assume that you have Exchange Server.

Microsoft Outlook 97 developers will want to download the Microsoft Outlook 97 Forms Help file. For Outlook 2000, see How to Install Help for Outlook 2000 Forms. In Outlook 2002, run the Olfm10.chm Help file, found in the \Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office10\1033 on U.S. English systems.

VBScript

Code behind Outlook forms uses VBScript, a slim, portable version of the Visual Basic programming language. 

To add or modify code, open the form in design mode by choosing Tools | Forms | Design a Form, then choose Form | View Code. You can use the Script | Event Handler command to add an item-level event handler procedure shell to the code window. See Syntax for Microsoft Outlook property and control values and events and Event Sequences in Outlook 97 for details on the key events that fire when the user adds data to an item created with the form.

Key Issues

• Top Ten Knowledge Base Articles for Outlook Developers
• OL2000: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Design issues

• Improve Your Custom Outlook Forms - Achieve a perfect match of Outlook item and folder properties
• Changing Built-in Outlook Form Pages and Controls
• Printing Custom Outlook Forms and Reports
• Controls on Microsoft Outlook Forms
• Syntax for Microsoft Outlook property and control values and events
• To add a custom field to an Outlook view
• To import or export data from custom fields and forms
• To add a date-time picker control to an Outlook form
• OL2002 Designing Custom Forms for Different Versions of Outlook
• Using contact item selector fields
• To recover the password for a custom form
• OL2000 Internal Fields Used by Outlook Folders -- which fields are required for certain forms
• To add accelerator keys to Microsoft Outlook form controls
• OL2002 How to Resize a Custom Form When It Is Opened
• OL2002 How to Display a Web Page in an Outlook Form
• OL2000 Working With User-defined Fields in Solutions -- Be sure you understand where fields are actually created. In order to avoid one-off form situations, custom fields need to be present in the item. But to support Restrict and Find, they also must be present in the folder.
• OL2000 Working with the Message or Body of an Outlook Item
• OL2002 Troubleshooting Forms That Don't Run on Other Computers
• OL2000 Posted Time Incorrect When Using Custom Post Form

Outlook 2003 problems

• Forms in Other Mailboxes
• Forms in Public Folders\Favorites

Using formulas for initial values and validation

• OL How to Use Formulas in a Custom Outlook Form
• Outlook Formulas Productive and Fun! - formula fields
• More About Outlook Formulas - validation formulas
• Outlook Formulas, Part 3

Publishing and sharing forms

• Saving and Publishing Microsoft Outlook Forms
• To distribute Microsoft Outlook forms to other users
• To send a form via the Internet
• To apply a new form to a folder
• Using Microsoft Exchange Forms with Terminal Server
• How the Microsoft Outlook forms cache works
• OL2002 Posted Time Incorrect When Using Custom Post Form
• To remove a published form programmatically - from Personal Forms, with CDO
• How To Remove Published Forms from a Folder Using CDO (1.x)
• How to set a secure form password

Limitations

• OL2000 Text That You Insert into Field Is Missing -- size limit for item data
• OL2002 Text That You Insert into Field Is Missing
• OL2000 Forms Support Limited Number of Fields, Controls -- More than 200 may be too many.
• OL: Cut, Copy and Paste Commands Don't Work on Custom Form -- Fixed in Office 2000 SP-2
• OL2000: Some Control Properties Create One-Off Forms -- Some fixed in Office 2000 SP-2
• OL2000 ListBox Bound to Keywords Field Unexpectedly Changes
• OL2000 Attachment Not Visible When Added to Item in the Open Event -- still broken in Outlook 2002
• OL2002 BeforeAttachmentSave Event Runs at Wrong Time
• Customizing Outlook lists

Outlook 2002 issues fixed in Service Pack 3:

• OL2002 Certain Custom Forms Will Not Show Correctly in the Preview Pane - fixed in Office XP SP3 with a new Preview registry key
• Custom Form Action Causes Outlook to Quit Unexpectedly

Also see

• OL2002 Operation Failed Error When You Restore or Maximize a Custom Form
• To generate an ID number for an Outlook item

Tools

Microsoft Exchange Server 5.5 Service Packs include the Outlook HTML Form Converter wizard to create Active Server Pages for Outlook Web Access (OWA) that correspond to Outlook forms. 

Tips

• To remove a published form programmatically - from Personal Forms, with CDO
• How To Remove Published Forms from a Folder Using CDO (1.x)

Set the icons for a custom form on the (Properties) page. Icons need to be 32x32, 16-color files. For the small icon, the image should be in the upper-left corner.

More tips:

• Opening a Published Form for Design Purposes -- Hold down the Shift key to bypass the script
• How to Resize a Custom Form When It Is Opened
• How to add a Categories button to a form
• OL2000 How to Display a Web Page in an Outlook Form
• OL2000 How to Programmatically Set a Form's From Field
• OL2000 Adding Help Files to an Outlook Custom Form
• OL98 How to Automatically Close a Form When Calling an Action -- workaround for Outlook 98 bug that doesn't allow you to close an item from its own Send event handler
• OL97 How to Bind a Control to the Field of Another Control
• Help files for public folder custom forms
• Printing Only User-Defined Fields in a Custom Form
• OL2002 Restoring an Outlook Form from a Cached Copy

Samples

• OutlookCode.com
• Outlook Exchange Developers Resource Center
• Microsoft Sample Applications
• Helen Feddema's Home Page
• Outlook Sample Applications - in German 

Discussion

• OutlookCode.com Form Design forum
• OUTLOOK-DEV mailing list
• microsoft.public.outlook.program_forms newsgroup on the msnews.microsoft.com server

More Information

Quirks, limitations, samples, etc. of Outlook forms: 

• Microsoft Outlook Appointment Forms  
• Microsoft Outlook Contact Forms
• Microsoft Outlook Message Forms  
• Microsoft Outlook Task Forms

Additional Outlook forms references and resources:

• Working with Microsoft Outlook Objects
• Event Sequences in Microsoft Outlook (Microsoft)
• Outlook Contact Item Fields and Properties - White paper by Helen Feddema
• Outlook 98 Command bar controls list
• How to Install Help for Outlook 2000 Forms
• Using Outlook's Forms Manager
• The Outlook MessageClass Property

How to articles in the MSKB:

• Working With User-defined Fields in Solutions
• How to Use Command Bars in Outlook Solutions
• Working with Keywords Fields from VBScript
• How to Simulate More Than Two Form Interfaces
• OL98 PropertyChange Event Does Not Run for Some Fields -- how to make a form respond to a change in the Categories property
• OL2000 How to Use an Ampersand in a Form Name, Menu or Control
• OL2000: How to Programmatically Create a Form
• XCLN ODK How to Make the Design Form Feature Unavailable

Known problems from the MSKB:

• OL2002 Memory or Performance Problems Looping Through Items -- registry entry limits the number of times Outlook loads custom form VBScript code
• OL2000: "The Operation Failed" Error Message When You Send an Item that Is Based on a Custom Form
• OL2000: Custom Forms and Programming Limitations

• OL2000: Subject Box in a Custom Form Is Not Checked for Spelling

• XCLN: Icon Selected for Custom Form Does Not Appear As Expected
• XCLN: Resetting Toolbox to Default Controls and Layout
• OL2000 Forms Can Have Only One Message or Notes Control
• OL2000 The Item Is Saved in Your Drafts Folder When You Reply to a Post Form -- Hotfix available. Another workaround would be to create the item directly in the folder using VBScript code, rather than relying on the custom action mechanism. Your code would need to copy all the data from the original item to the related new item.
• OL2002 Form Menu and Layout Menu Appear When You Use a Custom Form -- also affects Outlook 2000