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MS Office Forum / Outlook / Contacts / June 2006Default Contacts Form Has Suddenly Changed
My default contacts form in Outlook 2003 has suddenly changed and I have no clue why or how. I believe it happened shortly after a Bluetooth ActiveSync with the PDA device though I can't be sure (and neither can I see how this could possibly be relevant!). In short, the form has gone from being very detailed, including separate fields for First Name, Last Name (in the Personal Details section) and City, State, ZIP Code etc.(in the Address section), to condensing all this information together to give me a form that looks rather like an Outlook Express Contacts Form. It's now too simple and omits some important fields that I want to see when I bring up the form (for example, the 'department' field is now missing (though the 'job title' field is still there). I know the data is still there as I can see it on my PDA device. I want to see it in my main Outlook program too and I want the original default form to be restored. After spending days looking for answers (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Are you opening these items from your Contacts folder in the main Outlook window? Open such an item and see if there is a Help | About This Form command available. If so, tell us what you see on the resulting dialog.  SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx > My default contacts form in Outlook 2003 has suddenly changed and I have no > clue why or how. I believe it happened shortly after a Bluetooth ActiveSync [quoted text clipped - 11 lines] > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. I am opening these items by going to the Contacts View (which I arrange by 'categories' incidentally) and selecting a contact. A new window then pops up with the contact details. In this window, I cannot see a 'Help \ About This Form' option (the Help Menu has nine options, beginning with 'Microsoft Office Outlook Help F1' and ending with 'About Microsoft Office Outlook'). This is the form that I would like to reconfigure to its default setting. > Are you opening these items from your Contacts folder in the main Outlook window? Open such an item and see if there is a Help | About This Form command available. If so, tell us what you see on the resulting dialog. > [quoted text clipped - 13 lines] > > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. These are contacts in your default Contacts folder, right? Can you check the size of a few of these items, please? What tabs do you see across the top of the form? SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx >I am opening these items by going to the Contacts View (which I arrange by > 'categories' incidentally) and selecting a contact. A new window then pops up [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > >> Are you opening these items from your Contacts folder in the main Outlook window? Open such an item and see if there is a Help | About This Form command available. If so, tell us what you see on the resulting dialog. >> >> > My default contacts form in Outlook 2003 has suddenly changed and I have no [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Hello again Sue. Thanks for your continuing help. I'm actually away from my laptop at the moment, so cannot confirm exactly which tabs I see at the top of the contacts screen (I'll get back to you on that just as soon as I return in a couple of hours time). However, in my haste to reply, let me just say that I have created and used several hundred contacts, accumulated over the last 18 months or so. I've used Outlook both and at work and at home and on multiple laptops and the form I've used to enter and view all of this data has been the same throughout. To focus things, I'll just describe the very top of this form. Originally, the top line had fields (are these the same as 'tabs'?) for First Name, Last Name and Company. Now, the form has just one field for 'name' (featuring all of the data) and the 'company' field is on the second line. This new form is not too wacky. In fact, it looks as if it is probably another kind of 'default' form and its more than adequate for most of my needs. However, it's just not the one I want and I'm not comfortable with the fact that Outlook seems to have changed itself and not given me a way of reverting back! I hope that makes sense. I'll get back to you with more details shortly. Thanks again. > These are contacts in your default Contacts folder, right? Can you check the size of a few of these items, please? What tabs do you see across the top of the form? > [quoted text clipped - 23 lines] > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Further to my post of a few hours ago, the tab that I am having problems with is the 'General' tab. At the top of the screen there are five tabs: General, Details, Certificates, Activities and All Fields. It is the arrangement of the fields within the General tab that is causing problems and it is the General tab that I am looking at restoring to the default layout. > Hello again Sue. Thanks for your continuing help. > I'm actually away from my laptop at the moment, so cannot confirm exactly [quoted text clipped - 41 lines] > > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. In the Windows registry, look for the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\CustomForms. If that key is present, let us know if there are any entries under Compose or Read. It might be helpful if you posted a screen shot of the page you're seeing somewhere. Also, I still need you to report back on the size of a few items that don't have attachments. SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx > Further to my post of a few hours ago, the tab that I am having problems with > is the 'General' tab. At the top of the screen there are five tabs: General, [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] >> >> > These are contacts in your default Contacts folder, right? Can you check the size of a few of these items, please? What tabs do you see across the top of the form? >> > >> > >I am opening these items by going to the Contacts View (which I arrange by [quoted text clipped - 22 lines] >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Sorry. I'm not too IT savvy and I'm getting a bit lost. I don't know how to examine my Windows Registry. I've looked into my Windows folder in the C:/ drive but can find my HKCU folder within that. My Windows Help section seems to suggest that my Windows Registry is something altogether different and I'm a bit nervous about delving too far into the innards of my (new) laptop! Furthermore, my Print Screen button doesn't seem to be working so I'm not sure how to get a screenshot. If you can advise, I'd welcome the advice! In terms of sizes, everything is the same size as it always was. The only thing different is the orgnanisation of the page. I've used the 'Department' field as an example of one field that is missing. Of course, I'm not able to see the original form that I always worked in so I am going on memory here. 'Department' was one field that was definitely visible in the old layout and is now not visible. It used to be visible immediately under the Name field (above 'Job Title', I think). Now it isn't there at all, yet the info is still there as I can see it on the PDA. The most problematic aspect of all this is the address section of the contact form. Whenever this form change took place it seems to have messed around the 'country' field. I have just looked up a friend who address is listed as Brighton....Sussex....China. I have lived in China for a while, so this is not as odd as it looks - many of my other contacts are China. My father's address, meanwhile, is missing the country information altogether in the address display. This is odd as the information is still present. To bear this out, if I go into the Contacts view pane and select to list my contacts 'by location', everyone is assigned to a country, including my father! > In the Windows registry, look for the key HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\CustomForms. If that key is present, let us know if there are any entries under Compose or Read. > [quoted text clipped - 54 lines] > >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. You can view the registry with the Regedit program. Run it from your computer's Start | Run command. Print Screen is probably working fine. It copies the screen to the clipboard. You then have to paste it into Paint, Word, etc. to create a file. The country doesn't usually show in an individual contact window if it's the same as your own location. SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx > Sorry. I'm not too IT savvy and I'm getting a bit lost. I don't know how to > examine my Windows Registry. I've looked into my Windows folder in the C:/ [quoted text clipped - 82 lines] >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. No. There is no 'Custom Forms' key in the registry path you mention. There is only "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Forms\Choose Form" in which there are two entries - '(default)' (Type: REG_SZ, Data: (value not set)), and 'settings' (Type: REG_SZ, Data: 0.0). Thanks. You are right. My Print Screen button was working fine. I've emailed a copy of the JPG file to your 'outlookcode.com' email address. Sorry I had to do this. I have nowhere to post it online at this particular moment. Thanks for clearing up the country issue. It makes sense for the country info to be absent if it matched the country I currently reside (FYI, I'm in the UK right now, though spend most of my time in China). For what it's worth, under my old, favoured contact form, the country always seemed to be displayed. It was in a field towards the bottom left of the page. Now I have to bring up this info by clicking on the 'Address' button you can see in the image. As you can see from the image, the contacts form is a fairly standard one. It's just not the one I want! In the old form, there were fields all the way down the left column. Now there's that big grey area of unused space. There is nothing sinister in this. It's simply a matter of that fact that some fields are missing and that some bits of information have been condensed. > You can view the registry with the Regedit program. Run it from your computer's Start | Run command. > [quoted text clipped - 88 lines] > >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Sorry, but I don't receive mail at that address. Send the screen shot to the webmaster at the same domain. You can use any number of Internet sites for posting pictures. SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.asp > No. There is no 'Custom Forms' key in the registry path you mention. There is > only "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Forms\Choose Form" in which [quoted text clipped - 111 lines] >> >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might >> >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. I've resent the screenshot to the webmaster@outlookcode.com address. Hope you can pick it up. Thanks. > Sorry, but I don't receive mail at that address. Send the screen shot to the webmaster at the same domain. You can use any number of Internet sites for posting pictures. > [quoted text clipped - 113 lines] > >> >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > >> >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Thanks. The screen shot you sent depicts the built-in contact form for Outlook 2003. If you use the Restore Down button at the upper-right of the window to "unmaximize" it, it won't have such a big blank gray area. The Department field is where it has always been on the built-in Outlook contact form in every version, on the Details page. Since it's unclear exactly what the previous layout looked like or where it came from, it's impossible to say how to get it back. You can, however, customize the form yourself to give it a different appearance. These pages should help: http://www.outlookcode.com/d/forms.htm http://www.outlookcode.com/d/contactform.htm http://www.outlookcode.com/d/newdefaultform.htm SignatureSue Mosher, Outlook MVP Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003 http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for Administrators, Power Users, and Developers http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx > I've resent the screenshot to the webmaster@outlookcode.com address. Hope you > can pick it up. Thanks. > >> Sorry, but I don't receive mail at that address. Send the screen shot to the webmaster at the same domain. You can use any number of Internet sites for posting pictures. >> http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.asp >> > No. There is no 'Custom Forms' key in the registry path you mention. There is [quoted text clipped - 85 lines] >> >> >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might >> >> >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. Thanks for all your help with this. I still haven't got to the bottom of the mystery change but I've been reassured that nothing is too badly amiss. Furthermore, I've learned plenty along the way. Thanks again. > Thanks. The screen shot you sent depicts the built-in contact form for Outlook 2003. If you use the Restore Down button at the upper-right of the window to "unmaximize" it, it won't have such a big blank gray area. > [quoted text clipped - 99 lines] > >> >> >> >> > >> > (and testing soltions out myself) I remain clueless. Any ideas what might > >> >> >> >> > >> > have happened and how I might resolve this? Thanks so much. |
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