I designed a series of Microsoft Outlook forms for our sales representatives to use on the road. Many of these people receive and send mail via POP3/SMTP. When they send the forms back to us, all the custom form information is missing. Can you transmit Outlook forms over the Internet?
The key to sending Outlook forms via the Internet is to make sure you've set the recipient address for Rich Text Format (RTF). Without RTF, Outlook won't include the form information, whether you're using a custom form or a standard Outlook item, such as an appointment for a meeting that you want to send to a contact in another company.
Outlook controls the RTF setting in several places, depending on the origin of the address. Table 1 explains how to check the setting for different types of addresses before you send a message. One more tip: If you're sending a custom form that the recipient doesn't already have, open the form in design mode, look on the (Properties) page, and make sure you check the Save form definition with item check box.
How can I restrict distribution lists (DLs) so that only certain people can send mail to them?
One way is to simply hide DLs from the Global Address List (GAL). The Hide from address book option is on the Advanced tab of the DL's Properties sheet in the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program. If users can't see the DL, they can't send mail to it. Give the SMTP address for the DL only to authorized users, and tell them to make an entry in their Contacts folder or Personal Address Book (PAB) for it.
If you don't like the idea of hiding the DL, you can tinker with the Delivery Restrictions settings, again on the DL's Properties sheet. Create a DL of authorized users, and then add that list to the Accept messages from restriction. The potential problem with this solution is that leaving the DL visible in the GAL will probably lead people to try to send to it. When they receive a nondelivery report (NDR), they'll ask you why their attempt failed.
If I set up a rule with the Rules Wizard, how do I know whether it will run unattended on the server or only when the client is logged on?
I talked about this topic in my June 1998 column, but because many people are still confused about client vs. server rules, I'll go into more detail about what happens when you create a rule. Whether you create rules with Inbox Assistant or Rules Wizard, you can divide them into two types: server-side and client-only. The Exchange server handles server rules, independent of the state of the Outlook client. Client-only rules don't execute until the user who created the rule logs on to the Outlook client with the same profile that created the rule.
Certain rules (e.g., those that involve some element from the Outlook client that doesn't exist on the Exchange server) are always client rules. Table 2 classifies these rules according to whether they depend on Outlook features, client files, or the mail profile. The last group contains a surprise: A rule to copy to a public folder fires only when a user logs on to the client with the profile that created the rule. (Tip: Try using a rule to forward items to the public folder instead. That rule always fires on the server.)
The Rules Wizard stores the rule settings (i.e., conditions, actions, and exceptions) in a .rwz file with the same name as the user's Outlook profile. For rules for incoming messages, the wizard also stores that information in the Inbox folder, with an indicator of what profile created the rule. Therefore, the details of the rule are available to the server.
When a message arrives, the server compares it with the list of rules. If the server can execute the rule, it does so. If the server can't execute the rule, it places a deferred action message in a hidden Deferred Action folder.
When the user runs Outlook, the client checks the Deferred Action folder and examines each deferred action message. If a user created the rule with the current profile, Outlook carries out the actions specified in the deferred action message. This arrangement helps explain why rules can fire in an order different from that listed in the Rules Wizard: If the user isn't logged on, rules that run on the server execute first, and client-only rules don't fire until the next time the user runs Outlook with the appropriate profile.
Can I control whether a rule is server- or client-based?
In Outlook 98, Outlook offers to convert existing Inbox Assistant or Outlook 97 Rules to client rules. However, I think the conversion dialog is misleading. If you choose Yes, Outlook converts the rules to Outlook 98 Rules Wizard rules, but then saves them back to the server. If you choose No, Outlook leaves the rules as they were but doesn't change whether they were client or server rules. Their status as client or server rules depends on the rule's details, as I described in the previous question. When you create new rules with Outlook 98's Rules Wizard, Outlook automatically copies the rules to the server; you have no control over that decision.
In Outlook 97, you can control whether Outlook copies the rules to the server automatically or only when you specify. Choose Tools, Rules Wizard, and then click Options. In the Options dialog box, which Screen 1 shows, you see the settings for updating the server manually or automatically. Until you update a rule on the server, it operates as a client-only rule.
However, the most common way to control whether a rule is client- or server-based is to control the conditions and actions involved in the rule. If you want the rule to be server-based, you must omit any action or condition that Outlook can execute only on the client. If you want to be sure that a rule is client-only, add an innocuous action, such as assigning a category. A rule that assigns a category fires only when the user logs on to the client, regardless of whether other actions in the rule are server-based actions.
Can I create subcategories to help manage my tasks?
You can create a custom form with a user-defined Subcategory field, but the field might not do you much good. If you make it a keyword-type field, such as Category, so you can have multiple entries, you run up against a major limitation. Outlook lets you group by only one keyword-type field in a view. So you can't group by category, then by subcategory.
Why not just expand the way you use the Category field? Instead of using one System Maintenance category, you can add new categories such as System Maintenance—Mailboxes and System Maintenance—Check Monitors.
How does a user add attendees to a meeting that someone else has scheduled? (revisited)
In December 1998, I wrote that only the meeting organizer can invite people to a meeting. I've since learned that any invitee can ask others to the meeting by forwarding the meeting invitation. If the other users accept, they will appear on the organizer's version of the appointment as optional attendees. However, they won't appear on the copy in the Calendar folder of the person who forwarded the invitation or in any other attendees' copies. Many thanks to reader Darryl Levi for sharing this trick.
How can I send out a daily informational or inspirational message to users?
I'm not in favor of cluttering the Inbox with these messages. Users will probably just ignore such a message after the first few they receive. However, if you're determined to set up a daily message, you can create a public folder where you post a series of messages. Add a timer-based Exchange Server Event Service script to the folder to create an outgoing message periodically, using one of the folder messages for the body of that message. The script can delete the used folder message, so you don't repeat yourself.
How do moderated folders work?
A moderated public folder adds a screening process to ensure that the items in the discussion folder stay on topic or meet some other criteria that requires a judgment. Here's a step-by-step outline of how to set up a folder for moderation:
- Create a subfolder of the folder you want to moderate. This folder will collect submissions for the moderators to review. For example, if you have an Outlook Discussion folder, you might call the subfolder Outlook Discussion Temp.
- Create a distribution list (e.g., Outlook Discussion Moderators), and populate it with the people you want to moderate the folder.
- Set permissions for the Outlook Discussion Temp folder. Go to File, Folder, Properties for the Outlook Discussion Temp folder. Give the Editor role to the Outlook Discussion Moderators list, and for Default, select None as the role, and clear the Folder Visible check box. This setup ensures that only the moderators can see the submitted items. On the Administration tab for the Properties of the Outlook Discussion Temp folder, click Personal Address Book to add this folder's address to your address book. Close the Properties for the Outlook Discussion Temp folder.
- Display the Properties dialog box for the Outlook Discussion folder. On the Administration tab, click Moderated Folder to display the dialog box that you see in Screen 2. Check Set folder up as a moderated folder. Click To, and select the folder address (for the Outlook Discussion Temp folder) that you added in the previous step. Click Add, and add the Outlook Discussion Moderators DL to the Moderators box. Another option is to check Reply to new items with and send a response to anyone who submits an item. Click OK until you return to the main Outlook window.
When a user posts an item, the item moves automatically into the subfolder for review. The user receives a reply, if you so chose in the Moderated Folder dialog box. Only moderators (i.e., members of the DL) have permission to post directly to the moderated folder. What you've done is create two Folder Assistant rules. You could use rules and permissions to accomplish the same result, but the Moderated Folder dialog makes it easy to pull all the pieces together.
Instead of using a subfolder, you can forward items to a moderator's mailbox for screening. However, I think the subfolder method works better, because it spares the moderator from distinguishing the forwarded folder posts from the dozens of other incoming messages in the mailbox.
After I've reviewed an item a user has submitted for a moderated folder, how do I get it into the folder?
Getting a reviewed item into the folder is easy, but not obvious; don't look for an Approve or Accept button on the submitted item. If you're a moderator, just move the item into the moderated folder.
Why do items posted by moderators have different action buttons from those posted by other users and later approved by a moderator?
On an item that a moderator posts, the toolbar shows a Post Reply button. However, items that others post and a moderator approves show the Reply, Reply to All, and Forward buttons. Outlook buries the Post Reply to This Folder command on the Actions menu.
What's going on here? Adding the Message Class field to the view reveals that moderator-posted items use the IPM.Post form, and those that users create and moderators approve use a variation of the IPM.Note form that has the same icon as IPM.Post. My theory is that the mechanism that automatically forwards postings to a review folder uses the IPM.Note form, rather than moving the items.
If having two different forms bothers you, consider adding an Exchange Server Event Service script to the review subfolder to automatically convert all incoming items to the IPM.Post form. I included a sample of such a script with the article "Implementing a Group Mailbox or Public Folder" (January 1999). Another possible fix is to abandon Exchange Server's moderated folders mechanism and substitute a set of Folder Assistant rules or server scripts to handle incoming posts without changing their form.
To send a mass reply, can I extract the From email address from a group of messages?
Sending a bulk reply to a group of messages (e.g., messages sent to [email protected]) is one alternative to letting an Inbox Assistant rule send a standard reply automatically. This operation is simple to do on a custom form. Place a command button that you name cmdCreateReply on any custom page of the form. Listing 1 shows the Visual Basic Script (VBScript) code for the button that you need to add to the form's code window. This script uses
- Outlook to obtain the currently displayed folder
- Collaborative Data Objects (CDO) to look through the folder's messages and obtain the sender addresses
- Outlook objects to populate the To field of a new message with the sender addresses and to display the message, which you can then finish by adding a subject and text
VBScript-savvy readers might object to the line
intFCount = objMessages.Count
and suggest using a For Each...Next loop instead. That's fine, as long as you have VBScript 2.0 or later. However, in Outlook 97 with Internet Explorer (IE) 3.0, you need to use the Count property, because those software versions don't support For Each...Next loops.
