Outlook 2007 forms

[Allen]

We're trying to find a way to deploy "all-day" company events and
company holidays (when the office is closed) to our employees in Outlook
2007. We want those days to display as "busy" on everyone's default
Outlook calendars so no one will mistakenly book meetings on those days.
This feature is essential.

I found a "Transmit Holiday Form" on Slipstick's website. This Outlook
form seems to do exactly what we want but it was created for Outlook 98.
Microsoft has a "Corporate Events Form" download which also seems to do
what we want but it was created only for Outlook 97/98.

No one, it seems, is programming this kind of Outlook Form for any of
the newer versions of Outlook. It is unbelievable to me that
corporations haven't been screaming for this kind of feature in Outlook
since the 97/98 versions.
Do you know where we could find such a Form for Outlook 2007?

 

[Sue Mosher [MVP]]

In general, custom forms created for older versions of Outlook work fine in
newer versions. Many organizations, however, cannot meet the prerequisites
for implementing custom message forms because either they do not use
Exchange for mail or they do not allow forms to be published to the
Organizational Forms library on the company's Exchange server. Have you
actually tried using these older forms?

FWIW, the forms technology in Outlook has always been full of problems.
Going forward, Microsoft is putting its investment into newer technologies
like VSTO for add-ins, form regions for custom UI, Microsoft InfoPath for
data collection, and support for more standard methods of calendar
information distribution.