Create an Organizational Forms Library in Exchange or Office 365

Creating an Organizational Forms Library in Exchange 2013 or Office 365 Exchange Online is much easier than creating it in Exchange 2010: at most, you'll need to run three cmdlets to set up the Organizational Forms Library: one to create the Public Folder Mailbox (if a Public Folder Mailbox doesn't already exist), then create the new public folder and set the new folder's EformsLocaleID.

New-PublicFolder -Path "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY" -Name "Organizational Forms Library" 

Set-PublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" –EformsLocaleID EN-US 

Once the library is published, you'll need to use Outlook 2010 to publish custom forms to it or use *.fdm files to publish; Outlook 2013 can use forms in the Org Forms library, but can't publish to it.

Instructions for Creating an Organizational Forms Library in Exchange 2010 and Create an Organizational Forms Library in Exchange 2007.

Step-by-step instructions

1. Open PowerShell using Run as Administrator. Run the following cmdlet to bring up the log in dialog. Enter the Exchange server's administrator username and password. Note, you must have administrator rights to the server to use this.
   

   $LiveCred = Get-Credential

2. Next, run this cmdlet:
   

   $Session = New-PSSession -ConfigurationName Microsoft.Exchange -ConnectionUri https://ps.outlook.com/powershell/ -Credential $LiveCred -Authentication Basic -AllowRedirection

3. And then run this cmdlet:
   

   Import-PSSession $Session

4. If you need to create the Public Folder Mailbox, you can create it using the console or using this cmdlet:
   

   New-Mailbox -PublicFolder -Name PFHierarchy

5. When the Public Folder Mailbox exists, run these two cmdlets to create the Organizational Forms Library Public folder and set the LocaleID. Don't forget to change the EformsLocaleID if needed.
   

   New-PublicFolder -Path "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY" -Name "Organizational Forms Library"

   then

   Set-PublicFolder "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" –EformsLocaleID EN-US 

If your Exchange server supports multiple languages, you can create one Org Library for each LocaleID. You'll need to use a unique name for each library.
 

Use or Publish forms

By default, users should have permission to the Organizational forms library, but if a user does not have permission to the folder, the administrator needs to give the person or group the necessary permission. This can be done using the Add-PublicFolderClientPermission cmdlet.

You can use a specific user's alias or email address, or use Default as the user to apply it to everyone.

In Office 365 Exchange Online, you'll need to assign Author permission or higher to use the forms library.

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc -AccessRights Author

In on-prem Exchange servers, users need at least Read  permission

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc -AccessRights ReadItems

To publish custom forms to the Organizational forms library, the user needs the correct permission as well.

In Office 365 Exchange Online, users will need Owner permission to publish forms.

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc -AccessRights Owner

In on-prem Exchange servers, users need at least CreateItems permission.

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc -AccessRights CreateItems

Outlook 2013 users will have access to the Organizational forms library but cannot publish to it using Publish custom forms. Outlook 2013 users can install *.FDM files.

To publish a form as an FDM file:

1. First publish the form to Outlook Folders or Personal Forms Library.
2. Open the Forms Manager dialog (File, Options, Advanced, Custom Forms, Manage Forms).
3. Select the form and click Save as. (1 in screenshot)
   
4. Click Set at the top right of the Forms Manager dialog and choose Organization Forms. (2)
5. Click Install. (3)
6. Browse to the location you saved the form (*.FDM), select Form Message (*.fdm) as the file type then select and open the saved form.
   
7. The Form Properties dialog opens. Click Ok to install or fill in the properties then click Ok.
8. Close the dialogs and return to Outlook.

Users will see the forms from the Organizational Forms Library.

Using Published Forms

When you need to use a form published to the Organization Forms Library, you'll use the same method to use any published form: Select it from the New Items > More Items > Choose Form menu and browse to the Organizational Forms Library.

The form can be set as the default for a folder too.

1. Right click on the folder, choose Properties
2. On the General tab, click on When posting to this folder use:
3. Select Forms: at the end of the menu.
4. Select the Organizational Forms Library
5. Select the desired form then click Open

Check, Change, or Remove Permissions

To check the permissions on the Organizational forms library, use this cmdlet:

Get-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library"

If you need to change permissions, you'll need to first remove the user's permissions then give them new permissions:

Remove-PublicFolderClientPermission  -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc

Add-PublicFolderClientPermission -identity "\NON_IPM_SUBTREE\EFORMS REGISTRY\Organizational Forms Library" -user maryc -AccessRights Author

Form Failed to Load error

Outlook 2010 and above caches the names of the forms in the Exchange Organizational Forms Library. The cache expires every 24 hours. If a new form in the Organizational Forms Library has not been cached, Outlook displays the error. The form is not cached in the Names File cache until the cache expires or times out.

To eliminate the error, lower the timeout or disable it. If using Outlook 2013, change 16 to 15 or, for Outlook 2010, change 16 to 14.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Office\16.0\Outlook\Forms\ClassNamesCache
 
DWORD: Timeout 
Decimal Value (in hours): 1 - 24

DWORD: Disabled 
Value: 1 

Do it for me

If you don't want to edit the registry, you can download and run the reg file for your version of Outlook.

Outlook 2016 Outlook 2013 Outlook 2010