When saving an attachment in Outlook 2007, you can create a new folder in your filesystem first. However, Outlook locks that folder, so you can't move or rename it. You can unlock that folder by ...
There's an extra method listed in Folder or drive lock after saving attachment or message: use drag-and-drop.
If you can't see any of the standard Outlook forms, there are two solutions:
If Outlook stops displaying images embedded in HTML e-mail, the fix is to delete files in its temporary file folder. On my WinXP computer, that temporary folder is: C:\Documents and Settings\<user>>\Local Settings\Temporary Internet Files\OLK<random>.
To find the location of Outlook's temporary folder on your PC, open an e-mail message with a Word or Excel attachment, open the attachment and save it. The default location displayed in the application's Save dialog is the location of the temporary folder. This technique works for Word or Excel but other applications may instead show the last folder you used.
For the motivated, the temporary folder's path is stored in the registry in this key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\<Office version>\Outlook\Security\OutlookSecureTempFolder.
Notes:
This page has an unspecified potential security risk..
My custom Outlook form added some canned text in the message object in the Item_Open() function. Annoyingly, when I open the form in design mode, the Item_Open() is called, cluttering up the message object. It turns out that you have to hold down the Shift key when opening a form to prevent VBScript in the form from executing.
Holding down the
I had a simple request to add some canned text to the message body of a Outlook custom form when the form was first opened, so I did this in VBScript:
Sub Item_Open() ... Item.HTMLBody = "Blah blah blah" ... End Sub
Yet when I created a new item, the message body was empty! The same problem occurs with Item.Body. After the usual bit of trial-and-error, I discovered that the text only appears if you use HTMLBody or Body on the RHS of a statement:
Dim strTest strTest = Item.HTMLBody Item.HTMLBody = "Blah blah blah"More concisely:
Item.HTMLBody = "Blah blah blah" & Item.HTMLBody
The text also appears if I display a message box after I add text to the message box.
It seems like the HTMLBody or Body field is not instantiated or refreshed unless it is used.
While developing a custom Outlook form, I found that the To: field would unexpectedly shrink to a few pixels tall and pull the remaining controls in the form upwards. The problem occurred when I added Item.Recipients.Add "test" in my VBScript code to populate the To: field with a dummy e-mail address then clicked in the To: field. (I was using a dummy address to avoid accidentally sending test messages to unsuspecting recipients.) It seems as if putting the cursor into that field while Outlook is resolving the non-existent address (i.e. before it marks that address with a wavy red underline) causes the problem. The problem never happens if you populate the To: field manually with a dummy address, probably because Outlook is resolving the address as you type.
In my case, I found that typing Ctrl+K (Check Names) in the To: field restores the height of the field.
The solution during testing is to use a real address (such as your own).
I just finished developing a simple e-mail workflow system implemented using Outlook forms and VBScript and thought I should jot down some things that made development easier:
If you have VBScript in your form definition, you must avoid making a one-off forms (i.e. an item which no longer references its form definition) because Outlook security does not allow VBScript to run in one-off forms. A one-off form can be identified if its Message Class is not the same as the form definition's and / or its size is much larger than expected. For instance, if you define a form named IPM.Note.Test, instances of this form should have the same message class and a size of about 5 to 6 Kbytes, while a one-off form may be called IPM.Note and / or have a size of in tens of Kbytes. If you think the rules for identify one-off items are a bit vague, read this.
There's a fair bit of documentation and discussion about one-off items online because that's how Outlook forms were first deployed before they were regarded as a security risk. I ignored one-off items (which seemed quite useless nowadays) and treated my form definition as my 'program'. During development, my form definition is published in Personal Folders and I always use that definition to create an item. I also found that using the form designer's Tools, Run This Form menu item creates one-off items.
When writing VBScript for Outlook forms, you are stuck with the minimal Script Editor which doesn't have features such as highlighting syntax, auto-completion or a debugger; it's so minimal that it doesn't have a Save button or allow you to choose another font! At least changes in the Script Editor are always saved when you publish, so you can leave the Script Editor window open during a coding session.
Script Editor doesn't have a debugger, so you have to use the Outlook Script Debugger, which is the Web Debugger in read-only mode (!) that doesn't allow you to modify Outlook VBScript. The only silver lining that you can inspect objects and find out what properties they have in the script debugger.
Developing Outlook Forms with VBSCript was somewhat painful because of the lack of tool support. I hope the tips in this article would be useful for others starting on a similar project.
