OL98: How to Update Existing Items to Use a New Custom Form

ID: Q182274

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 98

SUMMARY

This article describes how you can update items in a Microsoft Outlook 98 folder so they use a custom form instead of the standard Outlook form.

MORE INFORMATION

There are several situations where you might want to change the form that is used for all the items in a folder. For example:

You use the default Outlook form to enter 10 contacts into your contacts folder. You then create a custom form for contacts and enter 10 additional contacts. You want the first 10 contacts, when opened, to use the new custom form.

You create a custom form for contacts and enter 10 contacts using the custom form. You then import 100 contacts from a text file. The 100 imported contacts use the default form instead of the custom form.

You have a public folder with 1000 posted items based on the default post form. You then create a custom form that shows the items in a way that is important to your work. You want to apply the new form to the 1000 existing items.

A property of the item called "message class" determines the form the item uses. You cannot change the message class of an item manually. However, you can write Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) or Visual Basic Automation code to change the message class for all items in a folder.

When you create and publish a custom form, the form is assigned a message class. This message class determines which form is associated with an item. The format of the name is "IPM.<FolderType>.<FormName>", where <FolderType> is the type of folder (Contact, Task, and such) and <FormName> is the name of the form. For example, if you create a new form named Revised and publish it to your contact folder, the message class is IPM.Contact.Revised.

NOTE: In each of the following operations, it is imperative that the new message class name entered be exactly as the name used when the form was published.

The following table lists the various names used for Message Classes:


   Item           Default folder  Default Message Class
   -------------  --------------  ---------------------
   Contact        Contacts        IPM.Contact
   Task           Tasks           IPM.Task
   Appointment    Calendar        IPM.Appointment
   Note           Notes           IPM.StickyNote
   Journal Entry  Journal         IPM.Activity
   Mail           Inbox           IPM.Note

NOTE: You cannot customize and publish the Note form.

To see the message class for an existing item, add the message class field as one of the columns in the current view. The message class in this view is read-only; you cannot type in a different message class to change the form manually.

To add the message class to your view, follow these steps:

Change the view to a table view, such as the Phone List view in the the Contacts folder.

Right-click the column-header in the view and on the shortcut menu, click Field Chooser.

In the Field Chooser list, click to select All Contact Fields.

Drag the Message Class field to the view column-header to add the field as a column.

Changing the Message Class field of existing items requires that you use Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) code within an Outlook form, or Visual Basic code from another program to automate Outlook and change the Message Class fields.

The following are two methods of changing Message Class fields. You should use the second method only if you do not have Microsoft Word 97 or cannot obtain the Omsgclas.exe file.

Download the Omsgclas.exe Utility

Download Omsgclas.exe, which contains a Word 97 document with a macro utility to change Outlook message classes. The macro runs automatically when you open the document.

For more information on obtaining the Omsgclas.exe file, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q182361 OL98: Word 97 Document to Change Outlook Folder Message Class

Create a VBScript Routine

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/refguide/

Follow the steps below to create and run a VBScript routine that will change all the items in a folder to a specified form. This example assumes that you have published a new form called MyNewForm in the current folder. If you use a different title for your form, modify the form title used in the third line of code in the section "Enter the VBScript Code." There are three tasks to this solution.

Create a new item to store the VBScript code

Enter the VBScript code and save the form

Run the VBScript code

Create a New Item to Store the VBScript Code

On the File menu, point to New and click Mail Message.

On the Tools menu, point to Forms and click Design This Form to enter form design mode.

Enter the VBScript Code and Save the Form

On the Form menu, click View Code.

In the Script Editor, type the following code. You do not need to enter the lines that begin with an apostrophe, since these lines are comments that are ignored when executed.


   Sub Item_Open
   ' Change the following line to your new Message Class
   NewMC = "IPM.Contact.MyNewForm"
   Set CurFolder = Application.ActiveExplorer.CurrentFolder
   Set AllItems = CurFolder.Items
   NumItems = CurFolder.Items.Count
   ' Loop through all of the items in the folder
   For I = 1 to NumItems
      Set CurItem = AllItems.Item(I)
      ' Test to see if the Message Class needs to be changed
      If CurItem.MessageClass <> NewMC Then
         ' Change the Message Class
         CurItem.MessageClass = NewMC
         ' Save the changed item
         CurItem.Save
      End If
   Next
   MsgBox "Done."
   End Sub

On the File menu, click Close.

On the File menu, click Save As. Make sure the default setting for file type is Outlook Template (*.oft), and then select a location to save the file. Enter a file name for the form, and click OK.

Close the item by clicking the X in the upper-right corner of the item window and then click No when prompted to save changes.

Run the VBScript Code

Open the folder that contains the items you wish to update.

To run the VBScript code, re-open the item by using Windows Explorer to locate the file and then double-click the .oft file. The code will run automatically because it was entered into an Item_Open event procedure. If you receive a macro warning, click Enable Macros.

Wait while the code changes the Message Class for all of the items in the currently selected folder. Depending on the number of items, this may take several minutes. When the code finishes, you should receive a message that says, Done.

NOTE: If you wish to edit the VBScript code later to change the name of the message class, hold down the SHIFT key when you open the item. This prevents the VBScript code from executing and you can go into design mode, make changes to the VBScript code, and save the form.

REFERENCES

For more information about creating solutions with Microsoft Outlook 98, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q180826 OL98: Resources for Custom Forms and Programming

Q182349 OL98: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol98


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbhowto

Last Reviewed: July 27, 1999