Above everything else, at some point you will need to take the time to learn
and become familiar with the tools you're using (i.e. Outlook in this case)
and how custom forms are implemented if you are going to get involved with
making changes etc

Having said that.......

#1 - Every contact item is associated with a specific message class which
represents a "form" as to how a contact is displayed. If nothing ever gets
changed then this message class will have a value of "IPM.Contact" which
represents the standard "form" that Outlook uses to display the contact info
#2 - When you create a custom form and make it the "default" for the folder
as you already have done, then this "form" (represented by a message class
name of "IPM.Contact.SomeFormName") will be used whenever you add a NEW
contact via the Outlook user interface.
#3 - Changing the default message class for a contact folder (or for any
kind of folder for that matter) does NOT change the message class associated
with any contact item that exists at the time you made the change to a
different default custom form for the folder (i.e. when you change the name
of "when posting to this folder, use...........".
#4 - To change the message class for any contact item that already existed
prior to making the change in item#3 - you will need a tool (whether it's
CG-MCM or any script mentioned by Sue - ultimate objective is the same for
all). These tools will change the message class to your new "default"
#5 - Outlook's own import wizard ONLY imports new contacts using the
standard message class name (IPM.Contact) regardless of the default folder
setting - therefore whenever you open an IMPORTED item (via Outlook) - it
will open up using the standard form until you change the message class for
these newly created imported items. (an alternative to the Outlook import
wizard (free) is using a 3rd party import product such as ContactGenie
Importer or DataPorter (not free) that will enable you to import new
contacts using a published custom form including importing data to custom
fields)
#6 - You can "Publish" a custom form to one of 3 different places - the
contact folder itself, the Personal Forms library, and the Exchange
organizational forms library. Which one you select depends on your
requirements and permission rights (in the case of Exchange). Publishing the
form to the folder itself is generally a very safe bet for simple scenarios
such as only one folder using the custom form etc.

Hope this helps

Karl

__________________________________________________ ___________
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com



"Bewildered" wrote in message
...
Sue, you say update the "MessageClass property of the imported items. I
really don't understand how to do this or what this does.
I download CG-MCM and have no idea how to operate this and what the
outcome
is.

"Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Perform the import, then use one of the scripts or tools on the page I
suggested to update the MessageClass property of the imported items to
point to your published custom form. You can check whether the items were
updated properly by adding the Message Class field to any view, so that
you can see what form they use.

--
Sue 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

"Bewildered" wrote in message
...
The data I ma trying to import only contains standard fields data,
however I
want them to be displayed using the custom form I have created so that
I can
input the data into the custom fields.

I have tried importing the data and changing the form with no success.

Karl & Sue,
Thanks for your help, I have succeeded in my task. I had downloaded Contact
Genie MCM but it had issues so downloaded a newer version and it worked first
go. Now I have a folder which includes all the information I need.

"Karl Timmermans" wrote:

Above everything else, at some point you will need to take the time to learn
and become familiar with the tools you're using (i.e. Outlook in this case)
and how custom forms are implemented if you are going to get involved with
making changes etc

Having said that.......

#1 - Every contact item is associated with a specific message class which
represents a "form" as to how a contact is displayed. If nothing ever gets
changed then this message class will have a value of "IPM.Contact" which
represents the standard "form" that Outlook uses to display the contact info
#2 - When you create a custom form and make it the "default" for the folder
as you already have done, then this "form" (represented by a message class
name of "IPM.Contact.SomeFormName") will be used whenever you add a NEW
contact via the Outlook user interface.
#3 - Changing the default message class for a contact folder (or for any
kind of folder for that matter) does NOT change the message class associated
with any contact item that exists at the time you made the change to a
different default custom form for the folder (i.e. when you change the name
of "when posting to this folder, use...........".
#4 - To change the message class for any contact item that already existed
prior to making the change in item#3 - you will need a tool (whether it's
CG-MCM or any script mentioned by Sue - ultimate objective is the same for
all). These tools will change the message class to your new "default"
#5 - Outlook's own import wizard ONLY imports new contacts using the
standard message class name (IPM.Contact) regardless of the default folder
setting - therefore whenever you open an IMPORTED item (via Outlook) - it
will open up using the standard form until you change the message class for
these newly created imported items. (an alternative to the Outlook import
wizard (free) is using a 3rd party import product such as ContactGenie
Importer or DataPorter (not free) that will enable you to import new
contacts using a published custom form including importing data to custom
fields)
#6 - You can "Publish" a custom form to one of 3 different places - the
contact folder itself, the Personal Forms library, and the Exchange
organizational forms library. Which one you select depends on your
requirements and permission rights (in the case of Exchange). Publishing the
form to the folder itself is generally a very safe bet for simple scenarios
such as only one folder using the custom form etc.

Hope this helps

Karl

__________________________________________________ ___________
ContactGenie - Importer 1.3 / DataPorter 2.0 / Exporter
"Power contact importers/exporters for MS Outlook '2000/2003"
http://www.contactgenie.com



"Bewildered" wrote in message
...
Sue, you say update the "MessageClass property of the imported items. I
really don't understand how to do this or what this does.
I download CG-MCM and have no idea how to operate this and what the
outcome
is.

"Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:

Perform the import, then use one of the scripts or tools on the page I
suggested to update the MessageClass property of the imported items to
point to your published custom form. You can check whether the items were
updated properly by adding the Message Class field to any view, so that
you can see what form they use.

--
Sue 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

"Bewildered" wrote in message
...
The data I ma trying to import only contains standard fields data,
however I
want them to be displayed using the custom form I have created so that
I can
input the data into the custom fields.

I have tried importing the data and changing the form with no success.