OL98: Using the New Contact Fields on a Custom Form

This article lists the new fields that are available for a Microsoft Outlook 98 Contact form and provides an overview of how you can use them on a custom form page.

The Categories, Check Address, and Check Name Buttons

A new feature of Outlook forms is that you can now create a button on a custom form that will display one of three dialog boxes:

• Categories
• Check Address
• Check Name

To create one of these buttons, follow these steps:

1. Open a Contact form.
2. On the Tools menu, click Forms and then click Design This Form.
3. Click the (P.2) tab of the form.
4. On the Form menu, click Control Toolbox.
5. Drag a Command Button from the Control Toolbox onto the form.
6. Right-click the Command Button, click Properties, and then click the Value tab.
7. Click the Choose Field button, click All Contact Fields, and then click the dialog you wish to use. Click OK.

To test the button, on the Form menu, click Run This Form.

The Categories dialog box can be used with all types of Outlook forms since each one has a Categories field. However, the Categories option is always listed under the "All Contact Fields" group of fields, regardless of which type of form you are creating.

NOTE: The CheckAddress and CheckName dialog boxes are only designed to be used with a Contact form. While Outlook will allow you to bind these dialog boxes to a button on any type of form, the dialog boxes will only be displayed if you use them with a Contact form.

Using the Selector Fields

Outlook makes available additional fields to support the drop-down buttons on the first page of a contact form. These fields are: To use these fields on a Contact form page, switch into design mode and then use the Field Chooser to drag the Selector field you wish to use onto the page. This will automatically create a label and button for the drop down list. You can then drag the corresponding Selected field onto the form.

When you drag the Selector field onto the form, Outlook generates a special button that will display a drop down list when clicked. However, the button that is created will differ in two respects:

• The Selector button will be smaller than Outlook standard buttons, but you can resize the button.
  
  
• The black, triangle-shaped down arrow on the standard buttons is not automatically created for a new Selector button, but you can substitute another graphic. The down arrow bitmap is not available from Microsoft.
  
  To select a graphic for the button, follow these steps:
  
  
  1. Right-click the button and click Advanced Properties.
  2. Click the Picture property and click the ellipses (...) button at the top of the Properties window to select another graphic file.

NOTE: These Selector drop down buttons cannot be recreated by using the Control Toolbox to drag controls onto the form and then binding the controls to the button. The only way to create functional drop down buttons is to drag the Selector fields from the Field Chooser.

Creating the Check Box Fields

The Outlook Contact form has three new Yes/No fields that correspond to the check boxes that are on the standard first page of the Contact form: You should drag these fields from the Field Chooser onto the form page, but you can also drag a Check Box control from the Control Toolbox and then bind the Check Box to one of the three fields.

Flagging a Contact and Setting a Reminder

The Outlook Contact form has five new fields that store information about a contact's status flags and reminders: NOTE: To set these values for a contact, open a contact click the Action menu and then click "Flag for Follow Up." These fields do not correspond to actual controls on the form, only the "Flag for Follow Up" dialog box available on the Actions menu and the toolbar.

You can drag these fields from the Field Chooser onto a custom form page if you want the person using the form to be able to directly set these values on the form. However, note that when you place these fields on a form, they do not directly match the format of the "Flag for Follow Up" dialog box.

Internet Free/Busy

The following field stores the Internet address of the contact's free/busy server: This field is available if Outlook is installed in either mode, but the field is only displayed on the Details page of the Contact form if Outlook is installed in Internet Mail Only mode.

For more information about creating solutions with Microsoft Outlook 98, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: