Microsoft KB Archive/181216

Knowledge Base

OL97: OL98: Bound Control Does Not Support Click Event

Article ID: 181216

Article Last Modified on 5/23/2002

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APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Outlook 98 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q181216

SUMMARY

When creating a custom Outlook 98 form, if you bind controls such as the ListBox, CheckBox or OptionButton, the click event in Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) does not fire. When these controls are not bound, however, the click event is fired.

MORE INFORMATION

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When designing Outlook forms, you typically bind a control to a field so that the value in the control is preserved when the item is saved, posted, or sent. To bind a control to a field, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the control, and click Properties in the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Value tab.
3. To bind the control to an existing field, click Choose Field. -or- To bind the control to a new field, click New.

The click event for controls is the only control event Outlook supports. Using the click event, you can trigger VBScript code to run when a user clicks on a control on the form.

The Click event is often used with command buttons so a specific task can be executed via VBScript code when the user clicks a command button.

NOTE: In addition to using command buttons to trigger a VBScript event, you can also use command buttons to display built-in dialog boxes. On a message-type form, for example, command button controls can be bound to a mail field, such as To, CC, or BCC, and the Select Names dialog box appears when the button is clicked. On a custom contact form, the command button can be bound to the Categories, Check Address, or Check Name dialog boxes that are ordinarily available for a contact form. In all of these cases, the appropriate dialog boxes will be displayed without writing VBScript code.

Controls other than the command button and label usually allow users to enter information or select an option. These types of controls are typically bound to a field. In these cases, you should use either the Item_PropertyChange() event or the Item_CustomPropertyChange() event, depending on whether the control is bound to a standard Outlook field or a user-defined field, respectively. These events will fire because the value of the underlying field is being changed.

For more information about working with the PropertyChange and CustomPropertyChange events, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

180857 OL98: Supported Outlook Forms Control Events

The following sample form demonstrates the click event with a bound and an unbound ListBox control:

Creating the Form and Controls

1. Create a new e-mail message. On the message Tools menu, point to Forms, and then click Design This Form.
2. Click the (P.2) tab. On the Form menu, click Display This Page.
3. On the Form menu, click Control Toolbox. The Toolbox should appear.
4. Using the Control Toolbox, place two ListBox controls and one CommandButton control on the form. Use the default names: ListBox1, ListBox2, and CommandButton1.

Making ListBox2 Bound

1. Right-click ListBox2, and click Properties in the shortcut menu.
2. Click the Value tab, and then click New.
3. In the Name box, type "IsBound" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK.
4. In the "Property to use" list, make sure Value is selected.
5. In the Possible values box, type "0;1;2;3" (without the quotation marks), and then click OK. You have bound the ListBox2 control to the possible values of zero through three.

Creating the Form VBScript

1. On the form's Form menu, click View Code.

2. In the Script Editor, type the following VBScript code:

         Sub CommandButton1_Click()
   
            ' Sets ctl to the P.2 page of the form.
            Set ctl = Item.GetInspector.ModifiedFormPages("P.2")
   
            ' Sets ListBox1 equal to the ListBox on the control.
            Set ListBox1 = ctl.controls("ListBox1")
   
            ' Loop to populate Listbox with values.
            For i = 0 To 3
               ListBox1.AddItem cstr(i)
            Next
   
         End Sub
   
         Sub ListBox1_click()
            MsgBox "ListBox1 Click event fired."
         End Sub
   
         Sub ListBox2_click()
            MsgBox "ListBox2 Click event fired."
         End Sub
   
         Sub Item_CustomPropertyChange(ByVal myPropName)
            MsgBox "CustomPropertyChange event fired."
            Select Case myPropName
               Case "IsBound"
                  MsgBox "Code related to field changing goes here."
               Case Else
             MsgBox "<<Select Case Else>>"
            End Select
         End Sub
                           

3. Close the Script Editor. On the Form menu, click Run This Form.

When you click CommandButton1, ListBox1 populates with the numbers 0 through 3. ListBox2 is already bound to the values 0 through 3. If you click a value from ListBox1, you receive a message box from the click event subroutine. If you click a value from ListBox2, the click event for ListBox2 does not execute, but the CustomPropertyChange event subroutine does execute.

REFERENCES

For more information about creating solutions with Microsoft Outlook 98, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

180826 OL98: Resources for Custom Forms and Programming

182349 OL98: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol98

Keywords: kbhowto kbprogramming kbdtacode KB181216

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