FIX: "This item contains active content that cannot be displayed in the preview pane" error message, and certain custom forms are not displayed correctly in the Preview pane in Outlook 2002

If you preview an e-mail message that has a custom layout in the Preview pane in Outlook 2002, the custom layout does not appear as expected, and you receive the following error message:

Service Pack Information

This problem is corrected in Microsoft Office XP Service Pack 3.

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Office XP. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language. After you install this hotfix, follow the steps that are listed in the "More Information" section of this article to set the appropriate registry key and to activate the hotfix.

The global version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel. After the hotfix is installed, the following files will have the listed attributes or later:

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the "Applies to" section.
This problem was first corrected in Office XP Service Pack 3.

This fix was designed for a specific scenario and has a relatively limited scope. It is most likely not suitable for most scenarios where custom forms are used. This fix will only permit you to preview custom forms that do not have Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) code in them. Additionally, the fix will only work if you also set registry keys to change the default Outlook form that changes the form that is used for all the items of that type in all folders.

For more information about how to change Outlook's default forms, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: To activate this fix so that Outlook 2002 displays custom forms that use a predefined form type, follow these steps.

Warning Serious problems might occur if you modify the registry incorrectly by using Registry Editor or by using another method. These problems might require that you reinstall your operating system. Microsoft cannot guarantee that these problems can be solved. Modify the registry at your own risk.To activate this hotfix, follow these steps:

1. Quit .
2. Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.
3. Locate and then click to select the following registry key:
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Custom Forms\Preview
4. After you select the key that is specified in step 3, point to New on the Edit menu, and then click New String Value.
5. Type IPM.NOTE.FOO.v.1.2.3, and then press ENTER.
6. Right-click IPM.NOTE.FOO.v.1.2.3, and then click Modify.
7. In the Value data box, type "IPM.NOTE", and then click OK.
8. On the File menu, click Exit to quit Registry Editor.

Note In this example, IPM.NOTE.FOO.v.1.2.3 is the custom form that does not appear as expected in the Preview pane. The value of "IPM.NOTE" indicates that the form should appear as an IPM.NOTE type form. If you have multiple forms, you can add multiple string values by using the same format as the first one.