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Set default properties for a form

With your form in design time, click on the tab for the Properties page.

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.

Sub-Category You can further refine the category by specifying a sub-category.

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 fully available, though, the recipients of your form also need to have Word selected as their e-mail editor. This setting applies to messages in Rich Text Format (RTF) only.

Template You can specify the Microsoft Word template that is used to format the text in the Message control of the form.

Contact When you click the Contact button, 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.

Description You can type in the description for 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.

Version Allows you to set a version number for this form.

Form Number Allows you to set a form number.

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.

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.

Protect Form Design When you check this box, you gain access to the Password dialog box. You can type in 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'll 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 checkbox, you no longer have password protection.

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 checking the Protect Form Design checkbox as well.

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. Checking this 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.

This option provides security and convenience for forms. If you send a form with this box checked, the recipients will see a Warning dialog box. Harmful macros could delete or copy their files, or send mail from their mailbox to another user; therefore, these macros won't run.

If network or file transfer time is an issue, 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.

For information about saving a form, click here

Use form only for responses Causes your form to be opened only if a related item is selected or opened. This option is used 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, check the Use form only for responses checkbox, and then publish your form. Open a second form in design time. 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.