NEED TO CREATE A FORM IN OUTLOOK...What am I doing wrong???
Hello, I'd like to create a form in Outlook that all my technicians can use as a standard template when submitting Escalation Request. The form would contain about 12 to 14 fields. 2 of the fields on the form would be drop-down fields.
This is what I'm doing so far, but it doesn't seem to be working.
1.) Click on Tools.
2.) Click on Forms.
3.) Click on Design Form
4.) In the Look In Drop-down, I choose "Standard Forms Library"
5.) Then choose Message in the list. I then click Open.
6.) This will open my form up in Design Mode. At the top of the form, I have the following tabs i.e.
Message, (P.2), (P.3), (P.4), (P.5), (P.6), (All Fields), (Properties), (Action)
7.) On the side of the form I have the Field Chooser Dialog.
8.) I click on the New button in the Field Chooser Dialog box, and enter in the name of my field. For this description to you, I will just use the words "Customer Name" The type drop-down and Format drop-down are set to "Text" I then click Ok.
9.) In the Field Chooser drop-down at the top, I select this and then choose "User defined fields in Inbox."
10.) I'm now able to see my "Customer Name" entry I made.
11.) I then drag the "Customer Name" over from the Field Chooser dialog onto my Form.
12.) This of course will scoot the white text box over to the right a little and place the Customer Name text and field in the grey section of the form.
13.) I then delete the white Text box, so that I'm looking at just a grey form with my one Customer Name field there.
14.) I right click in the Customer Name field and choose it's Properties.
15.) I then choose the "Value" tab at the top in the Properties Window.
16.) I select the drop-down button "Choose Fields" and then select the opton "User Defined Fields in Inbox", this will spit out a context menu to the side of that where I will see my entry "Customer Name." I select this.
17.) I then select the "Validation" tab at the top in the Property's dialog and check the the checkbox that says "A Value is Required for this field"
18.) I then go to the "Display" tab in the Property's dialog and in the Name field I delete "Text1" and enter in the field name "Customer Name."
19.) On the Display options I choose the checkbox at the bottom that says "Resize with Form"
20.) I then publish my Form.
21.) Next I close Design view by X'ing out and returning to my Main inbox.
22.) I go back into Outlook.
23.) I click on Tools>Choose Form> The Choose Form dialog appears and in the "Look In" drop-down, I select "Personal Forms Library" This will load my saved form into the list and I see it fine.
24.) I select it, then click the Open button.
25.) The form appears now in a brand new email. I fill in the To Field address to whom i'm sending it to. In this case I will send it to myself.
26.) Type In the Subject field the Subject.
27.) Then type in the "Customer Name" Field i.e. John Doe
28.) I click the "Send" button.
29.) For some reason it will always go to my Draft Items Folder. Where I will open it and it will be completely blank. Nothing at all, no Subject data, No Customer name i.e. John Doe, nothing....I see the Customer Name field fine, but the data isn't there.
30.) I fill everything in again. Click the Send button.
31.) It will send away. I click on Send and Receive button...And the Draft comes in as well as the original that I sent the first time so I receive 2 emails....weird...Anyway, when I receive them, both emails are completely blank, white, nothing in them at all not even the Customer Name field....
What could I be doing wrong here? I apologize for the length of this description but I wanted to be as detailed as possible for you. Any help with this is greatly appreciated very very much.
Thanks,
itsmevic
This is what I'm doing so far, but it doesn't seem to be working.
1.) Click on Tools.
2.) Click on Forms.
3.) Click on Design Form
4.) In the Look In Drop-down, I choose "Standard Forms Library"
5.) Then choose Message in the list. I then click Open.
6.) This will open my form up in Design Mode. At the top of the form, I have the following tabs i.e.
Message, (P.2), (P.3), (P.4), (P.5), (P.6), (All Fields), (Properties), (Action)
7.) On the side of the form I have the Field Chooser Dialog.
8.) I click on the New button in the Field Chooser Dialog box, and enter in the name of my field. For this description to you, I will just use the words "Customer Name" The type drop-down and Format drop-down are set to "Text" I then click Ok.
9.) In the Field Chooser drop-down at the top, I select this and then choose "User defined fields in Inbox."
10.) I'm now able to see my "Customer Name" entry I made.
11.) I then drag the "Customer Name" over from the Field Chooser dialog onto my Form.
12.) This of course will scoot the white text box over to the right a little and place the Customer Name text and field in the grey section of the form.
13.) I then delete the white Text box, so that I'm looking at just a grey form with my one Customer Name field there.
14.) I right click in the Customer Name field and choose it's Properties.
15.) I then choose the "Value" tab at the top in the Properties Window.
16.) I select the drop-down button "Choose Fields" and then select the opton "User Defined Fields in Inbox", this will spit out a context menu to the side of that where I will see my entry "Customer Name." I select this.
17.) I then select the "Validation" tab at the top in the Property's dialog and check the the checkbox that says "A Value is Required for this field"
18.) I then go to the "Display" tab in the Property's dialog and in the Name field I delete "Text1" and enter in the field name "Customer Name."
19.) On the Display options I choose the checkbox at the bottom that says "Resize with Form"
20.) I then publish my Form.
21.) Next I close Design view by X'ing out and returning to my Main inbox.
22.) I go back into Outlook.
23.) I click on Tools>Choose Form> The Choose Form dialog appears and in the "Look In" drop-down, I select "Personal Forms Library" This will load my saved form into the list and I see it fine.
24.) I select it, then click the Open button.
25.) The form appears now in a brand new email. I fill in the To Field address to whom i'm sending it to. In this case I will send it to myself.
26.) Type In the Subject field the Subject.
27.) Then type in the "Customer Name" Field i.e. John Doe
28.) I click the "Send" button.
29.) For some reason it will always go to my Draft Items Folder. Where I will open it and it will be completely blank. Nothing at all, no Subject data, No Customer name i.e. John Doe, nothing....I see the Customer Name field fine, but the data isn't there.
30.) I fill everything in again. Click the Send button.
31.) It will send away. I click on Send and Receive button...And the Draft comes in as well as the original that I sent the first time so I receive 2 emails....weird...Anyway, when I receive them, both emails are completely blank, white, nothing in them at all not even the Customer Name field....
What could I be doing wrong here? I apologize for the length of this description but I wanted to be as detailed as possible for you. Any help with this is greatly appreciated very very much.
Thanks,
itsmevic
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No, its normal to have to edit both.
Doing it the way you did seems to have automatically bound the fields for you. This could be easier for the beginner trying to learn. I never even tried to do it that way.
I usually use all labels on the Read Page bound to the Compose Page.
As far as installing on other machines, the simplest way may be to send a message using the customized form to all users. Its been a while since I've last done this, but I believe that then all the other users have to do is open the message on the new form and then go to TOOLS - FORMS - PUBLISH FORM AS - browse to the library where it is to stored, name it, and click PUBLISH
Doing it the way you did seems to have automatically bound the fields for you. This could be easier for the beginner trying to learn. I never even tried to do it that way.
I usually use all labels on the Read Page bound to the Compose Page.
As far as installing on other machines, the simplest way may be to send a message using the customized form to all users. Its been a while since I've last done this, but I believe that then all the other users have to do is open the message on the new form and then go to TOOLS - FORMS - PUBLISH FORM AS - browse to the library where it is to stored, name it, and click PUBLISH
ASKER
Yes that seemed to work, I ended up having to copy the fields from "Edit Compose Page" to the "Edit Read Page" enter in some test data into the fields and emailed it to myself. The data came through great. One thing I noticed though with forms you cannot Preview it in your Inbox, that it still appears a "White Page." I had to actually double-click on the form email I sent myself to open it and when I did, I saw the test data I entered in. I didn't notice a "Send form definition with item" option in the properties tab but then again I may have just over looked that. Is that normal to have to copy and paste what is on the "Edit Compose Page" to the "Edit Read Page"? or is there an automated function for this? Just want to know if I'm doing this correctly.
Also from here, once the form is created, I could take the file in my Personal forms directory and copy it to other machines Personal forms directory and they could use that as well, correct?
Thanks,
itsmevic