Save in Target Folder Sample Forms

This sample Microsoft Outlook journal form demonstrates the code needed to force an Outlook item to save in a particular folder. You can use it to save journal items to a public Journal folder. See Creating a Public Journal for Microsoft Outlook

You can also adapt the technique to other types of forms, except for message forms, simply by copying the source code from one of the two samples and modifying the target folder path, as described under Setup.

Setup

Download the Savefold.zip file (7.3 kb), then unzip it and open JournalMove.oft. Choose Disable Macros when you see the macro prompt.
Click the View Code button to display the form's code.
Under the InitOpts procedure, provide the full path to the target folder where you want to save items using this form. For appointment and journal forms, you can also set whether you want Start date for the item to default to the current date/time. Otherwise, new items may default to the date the form was published.
Follow the procedure below for publishing the form, probably to the Organization Forms library.

To publish a form with Outlook 97:

In the open item that you want to publish as a form, choose File | Publish Form As.
In the Publish Form As dialog box, enter a Form name, which will be used to select the form from the folder menu or forms library.
Click Publish In and select the location where you want to publish the form, then click OK.
Back in the Publish Form As dialog, click Publish.

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, only in Corporate/Workgroup mode.

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

Usage

The user simply runs the form directly using normal form methods or, if you have used the Outlook 2000 Forms Administration tool to make this form the default, the user just creates a new item. The fact that the form saves in a folder other than the default folder for the type of item is transparent to the user.

Notes

The technique that makes this form save in a specific folder is to create a copy of the item using the Copy method, then use the Move method on the copy to put it in the target folder. The original item is discarded. The fact that the item is a copy is recorded in the built-in BillingInformation field. If your application needs to use this field for some other purpose, you must modify the sample forms' code to replace BillingInformation with either the built-in Mileage field or a user-defined field.

The forms' code includes a generic GetMAPIFolder() function that takes the folder path as its argument and returns a MAPIFolder object. Feel free to copy it to other Outlook projects where you need to return folders other than the Outlook default

Limitations

When the user saves the item, the item closes -- even if the user clicks Save, rather than Save and Close. This is because the open item is the original, not the copy that was moved to the target folder, and must be discarded to avoid confusing the user about which is the "real" item. Redisplaying the copy automatically is difficult, if not impossible. At the time the item is copied and moved to the target folder -- i.e. when Write event fires -- there is no way to know whether the user has clicked Save or Save and Close. If your application needs to keep the item open, you might want to handle this by prompting the user to choose whether to redisplay the item. To obtain the moved item, you would use the Find method on the target folder's Items collection

Problems

No specific known problems.

More Information

Updated 01 May 2000