We have an existing contacts table in the Public Folder. We're created
a new custom form and have published it. Whenever a create a new
contact record, it picks up the new custom form. But we'd like to
attach the new custom form to all existing records. Is there a way to
do that? I've tried exporting and re-importing the contacts to the
folder w/ the custom form but it doesn't work. The custom form does not
appear in the imported records. As much as possible, we'd like to
avoid re-entering the contacts because there are close to 5000 entries.

Thanks in advance,
Joseph

You need to change the value of the MessageClass property on the existing items to point to your new form's class. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm#convert for several tools and scripts to accomplish this.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

wrote in message oups.com...
We have an existing contacts table in the Public Folder. We're created
a new custom form and have published it. Whenever a create a new
contact record, it picks up the new custom form. But we'd like to
attach the new custom form to all existing records. Is there a way to
do that? I've tried exporting and re-importing the contacts to the
folder w/ the custom form but it doesn't work. The custom form does not
appear in the imported records. As much as possible, we'd like to
avoid re-entering the contacts because there are close to 5000 entries.

Thanks in advance,
Joseph

Thank you Sue. You're the best. Your suggestion worked!!. I just did a
mass of the message class to the new IPM class of the custom form. I
did it through a VB script as described in Microsoft KB 170301,
(http://support.microsoft.com/kb/170301/EN-US/).

Thanks a lot. I was surprised to see your reply on the same afternoon I
did the post. BTW, I have your book Microsoft Outlook Programming.

Regards,
Joseph

Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook] wrote:
You need to change the value of the MessageClass property on the existing items to point to your new form's class. See http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm#convert for several tools and scripts to accomplish this.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

wrote in message oups.com...
We have an existing contacts table in the Public Folder. We're created
a new custom form and have published it. Whenever a create a new
contact record, it picks up the new custom form. But we'd like to
attach the new custom form to all existing records. Is there a way to
do that? I've tried exporting and re-importing the contacts to the
folder w/ the custom form but it doesn't work. The custom form does not
appear in the imported records. As much as possible, we'd like to
avoid re-entering the contacts because there are close to 5000 entries.

Thanks in advance,
Joseph