OL98: Forms Support Limited Number of Fields, Controls

ID: Q229095


The information in this article applies to:


SUMMARY

There is no exact limit to the number of fields and controls you can use on a custom Outlook form, but Microsoft Product Support Services recommends that custom Outlook forms should have fewer than 300 controls or user-defined fields, otherwise the form may not function correctly.

IMPORTANT: Although you should always create backups of a solution while it is being developed, you should be extra vigilant in keeping backups if your form uses more than 200 fields or controls.


MORE INFORMATION

When designing a Microsoft Outlook form, you can add controls and user-defined fields to the form. In addition, you can link, or bind, the two together, so that the data in the field is displayed in the control.

Outlook is designed to not have any set limits on a form's size. However, due to limitations of various software components -- both internal and external to Microsoft Outlook -- forms will eventually encounter a limitation when a certain amount of controls or fields are added and you use the form in a particular way.

When problems occur with very large forms, they usually occur when you publish the form, send an item, save an item to a folder, save the form as an Outlook template (.oft), or use the Advanced Find feature on items with many custom fields. However, other scenarios may also encounter problems with very large forms or items.

Based on problem reports from customers, Microsoft Product Support recommends that forms not exceed 300 fields or controls.

NOTE: Customers have successfully created items with greater than 500 fields, but these forms had a limited number of controls. Likewise, you could theoretically create a form with more than 300 controls, but controls typically require fields to store the data associated with the controls.

There are many combinations of variables that play a role in determining when you may reach a custom form limitation. Most notable are the following:

Suggestions

The following suggestions may help by either increasing the amount of fields or controls you can use on your form, or by reducing the total number of fields you want to use. Frequently back up your form if it contains more than 200 fields or controls. You should save and keep separate Outlook template files as you go (form1.oft, form2.oft, and so on) in addition to publishing and keeping multiple versions in a folder (preferably on a Microsoft Exchange Server).


REFERENCES

For more information about form size limitations, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q216980 OL98: Text That You Insert into Field Is Missing

Q186468 OL98: Error Publishing Large Form on Windows 95/98

Q197145 PRB: E_FAIL on SaveChanges() with Too Many Properties
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 98


Keywords          : 
Version           : WINDOWS:
Platform          : WINDOWS 
Issue type        : kbinfo 

Last Reviewed: April 27, 1999