Creating Your Custom Form
Creating a custom form does not require a programmers skill, but it does require some technical abilities.There are many resources available on the internet to help you. A number of links are offered below
If you decide you would rather let Davton create the form for you, we would be pleased to do so.
The starting point for any form is to list the fields that you require, together with the potential values that will be entered.
Davton Cloud Folders let you view and edit the following fields:
- 2 x Free Text box
- 6 x Drop Down Box
- 2 x List Box (Multi-Select)
- 2 x Tick box
Shared Database
There are many benefits from using a centralised, shared contact database. Here are 4 of the key ones:1. Ease of Access to Customer data for all relevant staff
2. Easy to keep Information up to date
3. ONE place to consolidate information - one place to track all details for each contact
4. Reporting and Tracking is made simpler
Links
Links to information on custom forms:Outlook Code - alot of useful info and links
MSDN Library: Developing Custom Forms Using Microsoft Outlook 2002 (parts 1 and 2)
Why Use Custom Forms?
Outlook Contacts already provide over a hundred fields which can be used to store information about the contact. How-ever there must be thousands of industries and millions of companies, each with their own specific information requirements.- A medical sales company might need to know the medical speciality of a contact
- A feed sales person might need to know which livestock a farmer keeps
- A marketing department might want to track which campaign the contact initially responded to
- An accounts department might want to record their credit limit
Below: An example custom form with four custom fields (on the right)
Outlook provides for all these details to be included in the contact – using custom fields. Custom fields are easy to create and easy to set up. Custom fields come in various types, including:
- Text
- Keywords (like categories – can store multiple values)
- Yes/No (Store a Yes or No, also a Tick or No-Tick)
Custom fields are only useful if you can add information to them. If you view contacts in a list view (a format like a spread-sheet) you can update the fields in the list. But what is more useful and user friendly is to create a custom form which includes all the standard fields that you wish to use on a regular basis.
With a custom form you can provide helpful ways to enter the data into your custom field, in a layout which makes the information easily visible. Options include: