Distributing Outlook templates (.oft files)

[Amedee Van Gasse]

Dear lazyweb,

We are preparing a migration from Lotus Notes to Exchange 2003 +
Outlook 2003 (SP unknown).
I have a question about the distribution of Outlook templates (.oft
files).

Currently we already provide Word, Excel and Powerpoint templates
(.dot/.xlt/.pot) on a network share, and when the Office installation
is pushed to a client pc, a registry key is added that changes the
file location of workgroup templates. (One of the many mysteries of
Office: why can you only configure this in Word, and why does this
setting also apply to Excel and Powerpoint? What if Word isn't
installed?)

One opinion I heard about distributing .oft files, is that we can
simply drop them in the same network share and Outlook will
automagically find them. I personally doubt this.
But documentation I found on the web suggests something else. I read
an article on microsoft.com about "publishing to organisational
folders" and it isn't clear to me if they mean filesystem folders or
Exchange public folders. I have also found conflicting documentation,
and to make matters worse, some things seem to depend on service pack
level.

So now I am a bit confused. Dear lazyweb, what is the simplest way to
distribute outlook templates in an Exchange+Outlook 2003 environment,
with the least amount of administrative overhead, easy deployable at
first installation, and user friendly? I don't want them to browse to
the network share, Outlook should just present the correct template
folder to the user.

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Your doubts are well founded. If these .oft files are simply boilerplate messages, then they should work fine if dropped into a network share.

If, however, they are Outlook custom message forms designed with custom properties, they will not work from a file share. Assuming you have OL2003 SP2 (which is what you need to be up-to-date on security issues), they will work only when used internally and published to the Organizational Forms library, which is a special system folder on the Exchange server, or to each individual user's Personal Forms library.

So, you might want to give us a little more detail about the purpose and nature of these .oft files.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003

and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers

 

[neo [mvp outlook]]

For Outlook forms that are to be used in the corporation only (e.g. they
don't leave the exchange site), then the ideal place to publish them is the
Organization Forms Library. For simplicity sake, this form library is a
hidden public folder that everyone has read access to. They would access it
via File > New > Choose Form.

/neo

PS - the Organization Forms Library needs to be created by the Exchange 2003
administrator. This is done via ESM.

 

[Amedee Van Gasse]

Your doubts are well founded. If these .oft files are simply boilerplate messages, then they should work fine if dropped into a network share.

If, however, they are Outlook custom message forms designed with custom properties, they will not work from a file share. Assuming you have OL2003 SP2 (which is what you need to be up-to-date on security issues), they will work only when used internally and published to the Organizational Forms library, which is a special system folder on the Exchange server, or to each individual user's Personal Forms library.

So, you might want to give us a little more detail about the purpose and nature of these .oft files.

Thank you.
I don't know (yet) what will be in these .oft files. I'll pass the
message:
* Simple .oft files --> network share (and clumsy browsing to the
share every time you want to use them)
* Complex .oft files --> need to be on the Exchange server.

I'll let the Exchange people make up their minds, and I'll come back
if needed.