Required Categories Contact Form

Microsoft Outlook allows users to build a personal list of frequently used categories (the Master Category List), but does not provide for a master group list.

The Required Categories Contact Form is a solution to make it easier for Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 users to consistently categorize contacts in either Exchange Server Public Folders or, for those without Exchange Server, Net Folders. It requires the user to choose from a list of categories distributed as part of the form. Until the user picks one of the required categories, the Contact item cannot be saved.

This form requires Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000. The ideas in it were developed in conjunction with my book, Teach Yourself Microsoft Outlook 2000 Programming in 24 Hours.

Configuration & Installation | Usage | Known Issues | Further Ideas

Configuration & Installation

Download the reqcat.zip file (13kb), then unzip it and double-click ReqCat.oft to open the form Outlook. Choose Disable Macros.
Choose Tools | Forms | Design This Form to go into design mode.
On the Categories page, right-click the large box, and on its Properties dialog, switch to the Value tab.
Under Possible values, list your required categories, separated by semicolons. The form comes with these required categories: "Client; Former Client; Prospect; Vendor." Write down the categories you use, because you will also need to add them to the code behind the form.
Click OK to close the Properties dialog.
Choose Form | View Code to display the code window.
Under the Function Item_Open() event handler, edit this code statement to substitute the same list of categories from Step 3 above:

gstrRequiredCats = "Client; Former Client; Prospect; Vendor"
Follow the procedure below for publishing the form. If you make any later changes to the form, go to the form's (Properties) tab in design mode and increment the version number. That will ensure that users get the latest version of the form.

To publish a form with Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000:

In the open item that you want to publish as a form, choose Tools | Forms | Publish Form.
In the Publish Form As dialog box, use the Look In list and Browse button to select the location where you want to publish the form.
Give the form a Display name, which will be used to select the form from the folder menu or forms library, and Form name.
Click the Publish button.

After publishing, the form is installed and ready to use.

Published form locations

Outlook forms can be published to three different types of form "libraries":

Personal Forms	Library of forms stored in your Personal Folders or Exchange Server mailbox.
Organization Forms	Library of forms stored on the Exchange Server for group use. You need permission from the Exchange Server administrator to publish to this library.
Folder Forms	Library of forms associated with a particular folder, either in your mailbox or Personal Folders or in a public folder on the Exchange Server.

To remove a published form, choose Tools | Options | Manage Forms, and use the Forms Manager that pops up. This function is not available in Outlook 98 or Outlook 2000 in Internet Mail Only mode.

For more information on distributing forms, see How do I distribute Outlook forms to other users?

Usage

To use the Required Category Contact form, choose Tools | Forms | Choose Form. (If you make this form the default in a Contacts folder, you can just click the New button.) When the form opens, fill in the form as usual. If you try to save the item without first picking one of the required categories, the form automatically shows you the required category list and will not let you save the item until you choose at least one of those categories.

Known Issues

This form has been tested with the U.S. English versions of Outlook 98 and Outlook 2000 in Corporate/Workgroup mode.

For other language versions, you may need to change the field that the listbox on the Categories page is bound to. This is done on the Value tab of the control's Properties page.

Further Ideas

This techniques in this form can be extended to other types of items, simply by copying the controls from Categories page on this form to a custom Categories page on a different form. You must also copy the code, of course, but it shouldn't require any changes.

For Outlook 2000, you could write code for the Application.ItemSend event to display a listbox of required categories on a VBA form whenever the user sends an message.

For more Outlook forms, see Microsoft Outlook Forms Samples.