Outlook Forms (2000 SR1)

[felton]

I need to set up a new form in Outlook 2000 to collect and export data to an Access database. Am I better off redesigning an existing form by using Tools/Forms/Design a Form, or should I design it using VBA. Also, can anyone point my in the right direction for resources?

Thanks
Nick

[jscher2000]

Those are two completely different things. The code that can be stored and circulated inside an Outlook form is VBScript, not VBA. As far as I know, you can't launch a VBA program or UserForm from inside an Outlook form unless it is present in the user's local environment (e.g., as a COM Add-in or in the user's own VbaProject.otm file).

Will your users be entering data into a message and forwarding it to someone else to plug into the database? Will they need to work remotely? If you expect users to be "online", you might bypass the Outlook form entirely and give a link to an application on a web server instead. Or... well... you have a lot of options.

As for resources, Outlook forms aren't all that well documented in the product help files. There is some stuff on the web, and searches on this forum might provide some useful links. Also, there are books out there, but I never bought them so I can't recommend any in particular.

[felton]

Thanks for your reply. I was reasonably tempted to think the two methods were bordering on "chalk and cheese" however I wasn't quite sure how, but it's what ever is needed, I guess.

The users won't need to work remotely, they have it in their minds to do basic data entry into an Access database via Outlook while at their office. To be honest, I couldn't think of a good reason why they shouldn't be able to do it, I mean, it's just another interface.

RE the resources, you are quite right. I found some sample code on Helen Fedema's website, http://www.helenfeddema.com/, so I'll keep pluggin' away at that.

Cheers
Nick

[felton]

(Edited by HansV to make URL clickable - see <!help=19>Help 19<!/help>)

I just found a news group run by Microsoft specifically for Outlook Forms: here