OL98: Supported Outlook Form Control Events (180857)

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Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Partner or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Partners, please visit the following Microsoft Web site: For more information about the support options that are available and about how to contact Microsoft, visit the following Microsoft Web site: Outlook supports one event for controls, the Click event, which is a VBScript procedure that is run whenever a user clicks on a control.

Outlook also supports two events for detecting when the value of a field has changed. The PropertyChange event is used with standard Outlook fields and the CustomPropertyChange event is used for user-defined, or custom, fields. Both of these events function the same.

The Click Event

The Click event occurs when the user clicks a form control. You can create as many Click event procedures as you have controls on a form. The name of each event procedure is the name of the control (such as "CommandButton1"), followed by an underscore character (_) and the word "Click." The following example displays a greeting containing the logon name of the current user whenever the button named "CommandButton1" is clicked:

   Sub CommandButton1_Click()
      MsgBox "Hello " & Application.GetNameSpace("MAPI").CurrentUser
   End Sub
				

Controls other than a command button are commonly bound to a field so that the control's value is stored. This is commonly done with list boxes, text boxes, or other controls, such as check boxes and option buttons. However, the Click event will not fire when a control is bound. You must use either the CustomPropertyChange or PropertyChange event to detect a change in the value of the field.

For more information about the Click event and bound controls, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

The PropertyChange Event

The PropertyChange event occurs when one of the item's standard fields, or properties, is changed. The property name is passed to the procedure, making it possible for the procedure to determine which property was changed. The following example disables setting a reminder for an item:

   Sub Item_PropertyChange(ByVal myPropertyName)
      Select Case myPropertyName
         Case "ReminderSet"
            MsgBox "You cannot set a reminder on this item."
            Item.ReminderSet = False
         Case Else
      End Select
   End Sub
				

The CustomPropertyChange Event

The CustomPropertyChange event occurs when one of the item's custom fields, or properties, is changed. These properties are the nonstandard properties added to the item at design time. The property name is passed to the procedure, making it possible for the procedure to determine which property was changed. The following example enables a control when a Boolean field is set to True.

   Sub Item_CustomPropertyChange(ByVal myPropName)
      Select Case myPropName
         Case "RespondBy"
            Set myPage = myItem.GetInspector.ModifiedFormPages
            Set myCtrl = myPage("P.2").Controls("DateToRespond")
            If myItem.UserProperties("RespondBy").Value Then
               myCtrl.Enabled = True
               myCtrl.Backcolor = 1
            Else
               myCtrl.Enabled = False
               myCtrl.Backcolor = 0
            End If
         Case Else
      End Select
   End Sub
				

Adding a Control and an Event to a Custom Form

To add a control and an event to a custom form, follow these steps:

1. Open a custom form.
2. On the Tools menu in the form, point to Forms, and then click Design This Form.
3. On the Form menu in Design View, click Control Toolbox.
4. From the Toolbox, drag the appropriate control to your form.
5. On the Form menu, click View Code.
   
   This opens the Script Editor.

The Script Editor has templates for all the item events. To add an event template to your script in the Script Editor, follow these steps:

1. On the Script menu, click Event.
2. Click an event name in the list, and then click Add.
   
   The appropriate Sub...End Sub or Function...End Function statement is inserted, with its arguments (if any) specified.
   
   NOTE: You cannot add Click event procedures by using the Event command on the Script menu. You must type the "Sub...End Sub" statement for those procedures from scratch.
3. When you are finished in the Script Editor, click Close on the File menu.
   
   This returns you to your form.
4. On the Tools menu, point to Form, and then click "Publish Form As." Publish the form to an appropriate location based on your solution.