I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith

Before you go any further with this, you need to determine whether you can
meet the prerequisites for using custom message forms within your
organization; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61

"ker_01" wrote:

I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith

Sue -

Thank you for your response. My plan is to use the Organizational Forms
library on the Exchange server; all target users are employees, so it will
just be a matter of asking the IT department to load the form(s) in the
proper location.

Thank you,
Keith


"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Before you go any further with this, you need to determine whether you can
meet the prerequisites for using custom message forms within your
organization; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61

"ker_01" wrote:

I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith

Are you already in contact with IT about this? The reason that I am so
insistent on this point is that not every organization supports the
Organizational Forms library. I'd hate to see you get your form all fixed up
nicely only to find out that it can't be deployed.

"ker_01" wrote:

Sue -

Thank you for your response. My plan is to use the Organizational Forms
library on the Exchange server; all target users are employees, so it will
just be a matter of asking the IT department to load the form(s) in the
proper location.

Thank you,
Keith


"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Before you go any further with this, you need to determine whether you can
meet the prerequisites for using custom message forms within your
organization; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61

"ker_01" wrote:

I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith

Excellent question- I had assumed that it was a default part of Outlook
server, and that the only issue would be convincing the right people to place
my forms on the right part of the server. I'll try to find out who owns the
Outlook server in IT, and see what they say. I appreciate your continued
guidance!
Many thanks,
Keith

"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Are you already in contact with IT about this? The reason that I am so
insistent on this point is that not every organization supports the
Organizational Forms library. I'd hate to see you get your form all fixed up
nicely only to find out that it can't be deployed.

"ker_01" wrote:

Sue -

Thank you for your response. My plan is to use the Organizational Forms
library on the Exchange server; all target users are employees, so it will
just be a matter of asking the IT department to load the form(s) in the
proper location.

Thank you,
Keith


"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Before you go any further with this, you need to determine whether you can
meet the prerequisites for using custom message forms within your
organization; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61

"ker_01" wrote:

I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith

There is no "Outlook server." The server component is Microsoft Exchange and
it does not come with an Organizational Forms library installed out of the
box.

"ker_01" wrote:

Excellent question- I had assumed that it was a default part of Outlook
server, and that the only issue would be convincing the right people to place
my forms on the right part of the server. I'll try to find out who owns the
Outlook server in IT, and see what they say. I appreciate your continued
guidance!
Many thanks,
Keith

"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Are you already in contact with IT about this? The reason that I am so
insistent on this point is that not every organization supports the
Organizational Forms library. I'd hate to see you get your form all fixed up
nicely only to find out that it can't be deployed.

"ker_01" wrote:

Sue -

Thank you for your response. My plan is to use the Organizational Forms
library on the Exchange server; all target users are employees, so it will
just be a matter of asking the IT department to load the form(s) in the
proper location.

Thank you,
Keith


"Sue Mosher [MVP]" wrote:

Before you go any further with this, you need to determine whether you can
meet the prerequisites for using custom message forms within your
organization; see http://www.outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=61

"ker_01" wrote:

I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.

We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.

Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).

Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).

I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.

One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.

I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)

Thank you!
Keith