Microsoft KB Archive/318448

= &quot;Operation failed&quot; error when you restore or maximize a custom form =

Article ID: 318448

Article Last Modified on 6/21/2007

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Outlook 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Outlook 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Word 2000 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q318448



SYMPTOMS
You use a custom form with a Microsoft Outlook Rich Text message body, and you are using Microsoft Word as your e-mail editor. Then, you restore or maximize items based on the custom form. When you do this, you may receive the following error message:

The operation failed due to network or other communication problems. Check your connections and try again.

If you click OK to close the error message, the custom form may appear as expected. In some cases, you may receive other error messages about low memory or about system resource problems.



CAUSE
When you use Word as your e-mail editor with a custom form that uses Outlook Rich Text for the message format, Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) technology is the communication between the custom form and Word. In this specific example, the OLE communication between Word and the custom form has a timing problem in the resizing of the form controls that result in the error message described in the &quot;Symptoms&quot; section.

The timing problem is triggered when a certain combination of the screen resolution, system resources, and form controls are used together. When you work with several items at a time and use a window command (for example, the Minimize, the Maximize, or the Restore window commands) you are more likely to receive the error message mentioned in the &quot;Symptoms&quot; section because the resizing code is called many times.



WORKAROUND
To work around this problem, use Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) as the message format for the custom form. Because the HTML format does not use Word as your e-mail editor, you never encounter the timing error. In this case, you can still use Word as your e-mail editor for all other items. You are only turning off Word as your e-mail editor for the one specific form.

How to change the message body of the custom form to HTML
Use the following steps to change the body format of the message to HTML:
 * 1) Create a new instance of the custom form.
 * 2) With the cursor in the body of the custom form, click Plain text on the Format menu.
 * 3) With the cursor in the body of the custom form, click HTML on the Format menu.
 * 4) Publish the custom form.



STATUS
Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed in the &quot;Applies to&quot; section.



MORE INFORMATION
Although the error message that is mentioned in the &quot;Symptoms&quot; section indicates that there may be a network problem, the problem is not network-related. It is a problem in the communication that occurs between Outlook and Word while they negotiate control of the body text.

In Microsoft Outlook 2002 and in Microsoft Word 2002, most of the functionality of the older OLE technology has been replaced with a newer communication method. This method is based on the Envelope.dll file.

This new technology does not have the timing or resource limitations that are associated with the older OLE method. For regular Outlook Rich Text messages and for HTML based composing, the newer technology is used. However, in the specific case of a custom form that has an Outlook Rich Text message body, the older OLE method is still used. In this case, the error message can appear.

Additional query words: ol20 ol2002 ol2k ol02

Keywords: kbbug kbnofix KB318448

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