OL98: PropertyChange Event Does Not Run for Some Fields

ID: Q188002

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 98

SYMPTOMS

When you use the PropertyChange event in Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) to determine when another user has changed the value of either the Categories or Message field, the event does not run.

NOTE: The Message field is also called the Notes field or, in the object model of Outlook, the Body property.

CAUSE

Outlook does not run the event for these fields.

WORKAROUND

To programmatically determine when the Categories field changes, you can create a user-defined field, link the user-defined field to the Categories field, and then determine when the user-defined field has changed.

NOTE: This approach will not work with the Message field.

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/default.asp

To work around this problem, follow these steps:

1. On the File menu, point to New, and click Contact.

2. On the Tools menu, click Forms, and then click Design This Form.

3. Click the All Fields tab. Click New at the lower-left corner of the

   form, type MyCategories as the name of the field, select Formula in the
   Type list, and type "[Categories]" (without the quotation marks) in the
   Formula box. Click OK.

4. On the Form menu, click View Code. Type the following Visual Basic

   Script into the Script Editor, and then close the editor:

      Sub Item_CustomPropertyChange(ByVal myPropertyName)
         Select Case myPropertyName
            Case "MyCategories"
               MsgBox "Categories changed!"
            Case Else
         End Select
      End Sub

5. Click the P.2 tab of the form. Make sure "User-defined fields in this

   folder" is selected in the list at the top of the Field Chooser window
   and drag the MyCategories field from the Field Chooser window onto the
   form.

   This will add the field to the form so the procedure will work
   correctly. You can delete these controls that are used to display the
   MyCategories field from the P.2 tab and hide the page.

6. On the Form menu, click Run This Form.

   NOTE: The CustomPropertyChange event will run multiple times.

7. Type a value into the Categories field and then click somewhere else in

   the form to remove focus from the field. The CustomPropertyEvent will
   now run multiple times.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The Message field is an OLE-based field and the only field that can contain rich text, attachments, or other data, such as Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). The Categories field is a Keywords field that is designed to store multiple values.

When user-defined fields are set to "automatically update" or are defined as Formula or Combination fields, they will run the CustomPropertyChange event multiple times. When another field is updated or other circumstances occur (for example, if the user changes pages on the form), the event is run. This behavior will vary depending on the type of form being used. The Contact form will run the event more frequently than other types of forms, because many of the standard fields on the Contact form are actually Combination fields, which are calculated based on the values of other fields. While having the event run multiple times does not affect most of the CustomPropertyChange event usage, you should expect the code in the event to run repeatedly.

REFERENCES

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

   Article-ID: Q180826
   Title     : OL98: Resources for Custom Forms and Programming

   Article-ID: Q182349
   Title     : OL98: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol98 vbscript

Keywords          : kbdta OffVBS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: May 17, 1999