Outlook Form Types

To help you understand the types of applications you can develop and when to customize certain forms in the Outlook environment, you need to know what the form types are and how they can be extended.

Message Forms

The Message form should be used for applications in which users have to send information to other users or to a folder. You inherit all built-in capabilities of the form, such as automatic name resolution and nickname support, and all fields on the form can be customized. Figure 5-1 shows an example of a Message form in design mode. Different pages of the form are displayed by clicking the appropriate tab.

Figure 5-1 The Message form in design mode.

Post Forms

The Post form is best used in applications that post or retrieve messages in an Outlook folder. When you customize a Post form, Outlook automatically assigns the currently open Outlook folder to the In Folder field. For example, if you customize a Post form in a helpdesk public folder, Outlook automatically assigns the helpdesk public folder to the In Folder field. This automatic assignment means that even though the user can install, or publish, the Post form in any folder, any items the user creates with the form will be posted to the helpdesk public folder. Figure 5-2 shows the Post form.

Contact Forms

Use the Contact form in applications that track address or customer information. You can customize the first page of the Contact form; by doing so, you inherit the form's journaling, mapping, NetMeeting, and address resolution capabilities. The other default pages in the form are not customizable but can be hidden. Figure 5-3 shows the Contact form.

Figure 5-2 The Post form in design mode.

Figure 5-3 The Contact form in design mode.

NOTE

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You can customize a number of other Outlook forms, including the Appointment, Task, and Journal forms, by hiding them or adding new pages to them. However, you cannot customize any of the built-in pages of these forms.

Any custom applications you develop using the Journal form will post information to a user's personal journal.

Office Document Forms

Outlook supports embedding Microsoft Word, Excel, and Microsoft PowerPoint documents directly into a form, so you can send these documents to a user or post them to a folder. These types of forms are best used when you want the advanced replication and forms library support of Outlook, but you also want the functionality of other Office applications. Outlook places a wrapper around the Office application you use to design the form, so you cannot add custom tabs to the form. You can, however, customize the application by using the built-in capabilities and tools provided by the specific Office application. For example, you can use VBA to customize an Outlook Office document form. Figure 5-4 shows an Excel document form.

Figure 5-4 An Excel Office document form in design mode.