OL98: Cannot Change the Default Mail Message Form

ID: Q180858

The information in this article applies to:

SYMPTOMS

If you create a custom Microsoft Outlook 98 form based on the Mail Message form, when you try to set the custom form as the default form for the Inbox, you may receive the following error message:

You cannot create an item of this type in this folder.


CAUSE

The base message class (an internal property) of the custom form does not match the Inbox folder base message class.


RESOLUTION

To Access the Form from the Outlook Toolbar

You must publish the custom form in the Folder Forms Library for the Inbox and access the form from the Actions menu.

To publish the form in the Inbox Folder Forms Library, follow these steps:
  1. With the custom form open, on the Tools menu, point to Forms and click Publish Form As.


  2. In the Publish Form As dialog box, and in the Look In list, click to select Inbox.


  3. Type a name for the form using the Display name box and click OK.


To use the form, on the Actions menu, click New <form name>, where <form name> is the name of the form that you just published.

If your goal is to have the form applied to all incoming mail items, there is no way to have a custom form applied to incoming mail. All received mail will have a message class of IPM.Note and will use the default mail message form. This means that there is no way to have Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) code run when a message is received.

A workaround would be to create a Visual Basic program that runs continuously (an agent) and periodically automates Outlook to process new items in the Inbox.


MORE INFORMATION

To set a default form for a folder, follow these steps:

  1. Using the right mouse button, click the folder, and then click Properties on the shortcut menu.


  2. On the General tab, click the "When posting to this folder, use" list and click to select the form in the list. Or, you can click Forms... in the list and select your form in the Choose Form box.


If the base message class of the custom form and the folder type do not match, you will receive the error message mentioned in the Symptoms section of this article. The base message class of the form and the folder must match before you can set the form as the default form.

The table below lists the folder type and its message class. 

   Folder Type        Base Message Class required for default form
   ---------------------------------------------------------------
   Mail Items         IPM.Post
   Task Items         IPM.Task
   Appointment Items  IPM.Appointment
   Contact Items      IPM.Contact
   Journal Items      IPM.Activity
When creating a custom form based on the Mail Message form, the base message class is IPM.Note. This base message class is not one of the classes that you can set as default; therefore you cannot set a custom Mail Message form as default for any of these Outlook folders.

For folders other than mail item folders, this is not limiting behavior. If you are designing a custom form for a Task folder, you start with the built-in Task form which has the IPM.Task message class; therefore the base message class is compatible. The only folder type that has this limitation is the Mail Items folder type.


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 Can't 


Keywords          : kberrmsg FmsHowto 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbprb

Last Reviewed: July 30, 1999