Message forms default to separate layouts for composing and
reading. Many people find their first message form doesn't look
right when they receive an item created with it. That's simply because they forgot to
customize the Read page! (The other chief cause of message forms
looking odd is not sending them in rich-text format; see
To send a form via the Internet.)On items created with customized message forms, the icon does not change to an
open envelope after the user opens the message or marks it as read. However,
unread messages will still show as bold in a folder view,
regardless of what form they use. This is a user education issue
as much as anything else.
The View | Bcc command is not available on the menu
for custom forms. If you included a To button on the form, users
can click that if they need to add a Bcc recipient.
Custom
message forms do not display the "InfoBar" that
tells when a message was forwarded or replied to. See
OL2002 Information Bar Does Not Display on Custom Mail Form.
If you forward an item created with a custom form, the resulting message uses the
same custom form, even if you have IPM.Note for the form listed
for the Forward action
on the (Actions) tab. In order to avoid
one-offing, you should set the
form for the Forward action to the same message class as your
custom form.
An unsent message item always defaults to saving in the Drafts
folder in Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000, even if you use the
Items.Add method to create the item in a specific folder. (See
To add a toolbar button to launch an Outlook 2000 form
for sample code.) If you don't need to send
the message item (see Limitations below), just save it and then
move it.
Even if you have an AutoSignature set, when you create a new
message using a custom form, it does not insert the signature
automatically. See
Launch custom form message with default signature for a code
sample that shows how to use a normal message to get the
signature to insert into a new HTML message that uses a custom
form. On the other hand, if you designed a
form from a message with a signature in it, you should be able
to remove the signature by running the form, deleting the
signature, then republishing the form. For Outlook 2002, a
post-SP2 hotfix causes the automatic signature to work on custom
forms; see Outlook 2002 Post-Service Pack 2 Hotfix Package September 19,
2003.
If you set the Body
property on a message item in Outlook 2000 or earlier versions, you are also changing the format to
rich-text. (The VBA Help file says that setting the Body changes
the format to the user's default. This is not correct.) One
workaround is to CDO to set the body with
the Message.Text property.
If you
set the HTMLBody
property, you set the format to HTML. Outlook 2002 provides
a BodyFormat property for directly setting the message type;
setting the Body property in Outlook 2002 defaults the format to
the user's default choice in Tools | Options | Mail Format.
A
published message form does not retain any value you put in the
From field, although a form saved as an .oft template file does. A
possible workaround is to use this code in your form to set the
From value. (Note that this is not the same as designating a
sending account for the item, which is not possible.)
Also see:
