Set default properties for a form
With your form in design mode, click the tab for the Properties page.
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Category You can specify a category for your form that will help to organize the forms in the New Form dialog box when you are selecting a form.
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Sub-Category You can further refine the category by specifying a sub-category.
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Always use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor Lets you specify that Microsoft Word will be the editor for the message portion (or control) of your form. This will add all the formatting options that are available with Word, such as spell checking and thesaurus. In order for these options to be available, the recipients of your form must have Word installed.
Note This feature has not been changed from earlier versions of Microsoft Office. Selecting this option uses an older architecture for using Word as the e-mail editor and does not provide exactly the same user experience as enabling Word as the e-mail editor by clicking Options on the Tools menu.
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Template You can specify the Word template that is used to format the text in the message control of the form.
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Contact When you click Contact, you have access to the Address Book. This allows you to select the names of people who are responsible for maintaining, upgrading, or providing information about this form. The contact information that you provide will show in the Forms Manager dialog box and the form Properties page.
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Description You can type a description of your form. This could include instructions for the use of the form as well as a full description of the form's purpose. This information will be displayed in the About dialog box on the Help menu of the form as well as in the Properties dialog box for the form.
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Version Allows you to set a version number for this form. This is a free-form text field and does not affect Microsoft Outlook behavior in any way.
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Form Number Allows you to set a form number. This is a free-form text field and does not affect Outlook behavior in any way.
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Change Large Icon When you click this button, a File Open dialog box allows you to select a different large icon for your form. Large icons appear in the form Properties dialog box.
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Change Small Icon When you click this button, a File Open dialog box allows you to select a different small icon for your form. Small icons appear in the Outlook folder to represent an item of the type created with the form.
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Protect Form Design When you select this box, you gain access to the Password dialog box. You can type a password of your choice in the Password field, and then retype it in the Confirm field. If you make a mistake when retyping, a message box will inform you and you will have the opportunity to type the confirmation again. Setting a password for your form means that others are prevented from changing any of the attributes of your form after it is published. If you clear the check box, you no longer have password protection.
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Set Password When you click this button, the Password dialog box will allow you to set a password for the protection of your form. This has the affect of selecting the Protect Form Design check box.
Note The password can be accessed using the Outlook object model so it is not fully secure. Setting a password on a custom form only serves as a deterrent so that users cannot easily access the form in design mode.
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Send form definition with item Specifies that the form definition is included when you send the form. This causes the form to be much larger than if this option is not selected. Selecting this check box creates a self-contained form that will allow your recipients to view the form even if they don't have access to the same forms library as the sender.
If you don't specify that the form definition should be sent with the item, the recipient will receive a regular form instead of the one that you have created. Setting this option allows recipients to open the item in the form on their computer, even though the form has not been installed on their Outlook system. This is especially useful for one-off forms that have been created for one-time use.
Outlook does not run VBScript code if the form definition is included with the item. In most cases, it is better to publish a form rather than to include the form definition with the item. If you do send the form with the item, you can re-enable the VBScript code if you use custom security settings in the "Outlook 11 Security Settings" folder on the Microsoft Exchange public folder. In that case, if you send a form with this box checked, the recipients will see a Warning dialog box. They have the option of disabling the macros since the form is not published. Harmful macros could delete or copy their files, or send mail from their mailbox to another user.
If network or file transfer time is an issue, and you cannot publish the form for some reason, an alternative to sending the form definition is to save the form and send it as an attachment to another form. Recipients can take the attached form and publish it in their own forms library.
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Use form only for responses Hides a form when it is published to a forms library. This option is useful in situations when you have created a form that is intended only for replies. In another form, you can specify that your reply form will be used instead of the default reply form.
To use your form only for responses, select the Use form only for responses check box, and then publish your form. Open a second form in design mode. On the Actions page of the second form, you can specify your published form in the Reply or Reply to All action. To use your form as the default reply form, double-click the Reply action in the second form. You can select the name of your published reply form in the Form name: field of the Form Action Properties dialog box. This will cause your reply form to be used instead of the default reply form.