HOW TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT OUTLOOK FORMS

Small and large organizations usually would use customized outlook forms for contacts etc. In order to accomplish this we would have to design the custom form and have to enforce that custom form as the default form to all the users of outlook. This tutorial will help you to understand the procedures involved in order to accomplish this.

 In order to apply custom forms as the default for composing & reading the existing outlook items in outlook we need to follow below steps:

1. Design and publish the outlook forms in to the organizational library so that it is available to all outlook users.
2. Note down the custom forms message class name
3. Make that custom form has the default form for composing and Reading outlook items

 

1. Design and publish the outlook forms in to the organizational library so that it is available to all outlook users.

First Login in as Administrator of the exchange server using outlook. Than design & publish that form in to the organizational Forms Library

Refer the below URL in order to design & publish forms in outlook

Saving and Publishing Outlook Forms @

http://www.slipstick.com/dev/formpub.htm

Microsoft Outlook Forms and Templates  @

http://www.windowsitlibrary.com/Content/191/18/1.html

Customize Outlook Forms @

http://www.pcmag.com/print_article/0,3048,a=27547,00.asp

2. Note down the custom form message class name

Click on Tools->Forms->Choose Forms

Choose “Organizational Forms Library” in the “Look In”

Select the custom form you have designed and click on “Details”  button to see the message class name, where in the above case it is “IPM.Note.while You Were Out”

3. Make that custom form has the default form for composing and Reading outlook items

Let us assume that we have created an outlook contact custom form and its message class name is “IPM.Contact.Corporatecontact”. In order to make this IPM.Contact.Corporatecontact  custom form as the default form for reading and composing existing contact items download the below utility from http://www.microsoft.com/office/ork/2000/Appndx/toolbox.htm#outladm

§       Outlook 2000 Forms Administrator (Formswap.exe)

Once downloaded install and launch the formswap.exe file

1. Choose the Target as “Contact[IPM.contact]

2. In the ‘Compose’ and ‘Read’ type the custom form class name, in our case, which is “IPM.Contact.CorporateContact”.

3. Click Save.

This will change the default contact form to the custom contact form in outlook 2000

For outlook 2002 we need to click on “Export saved settings” and save the Reg file. Later edit the reg file to replace the \9.0\ with \10.0\ and run the reg file by double clicking it.

To revert back to the default contact form, put the below shown information and click save for Outlook 2000 and from outlook 2002 export saved settings, edit and run the reg file

Also you can get more information from the “FormsAdminReadme” file, which is accompanied with the formswap.exe file

For more information refer  OL2002: How to Change the Default Outlook Forms 

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;q295064&ID=KB;EN-US;q295064

For comprehensive information refer

http://www.slipstick.com/dev/newdefaultform.htm

 

For Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions refer

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;287530