OL2000: Office E-mail Messages Do Not Have Inspectors

• Microsoft Outlook 2000

SYMPTOMS

You create a solution based on the Microsoft Outlook object model and you use the Inspector object in your code, and then any of the following occur:

• The NewInspector event does not fire.


-or-


• The Inspector object returns Nothing, even though mail messages are open.


-or-


• Your code unexpectedly fails in some other way.

CAUSE

You are using the Inspector object on a mail message that is based on the new Microsoft Office 2000 "Office E-mail" feature, which is architecturally different from the earlier implementation of WordMail. Office E-mail messages are not based on an Outlook form and therefore do not have Inspector objects and cannot be controlled using the Outlook object model.

RESOLUTION

If you want to use e-mail messages that are based on Microsoft Word, you can use the earlier WordMail-based message type, which still supports Inspector objects and the NewInspector event in the Outlook object model.

To Set WordMail as the Default Message Type

1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the Mail Format tab.



2. Click Microsoft Outlook Rich Text in the Send in this message format list.



3. Click to select Use Microsoft Word to edit e-mail messages and then click OK.

To Use WordMail to Create a Message

1. On the File menu, point to New, and click Mail Message.



2. On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and click Design a Form.



3. Click the Properties tab of the form.



4. Click to select Always use Microsoft Word as the e-mail editor.



5. On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and click Publish Form As. Set Look in: to Inbox, enter an appropriate Display name for the form, such as WordMail, and click Publish.



6. When prompted to send the form definition with the item, click Yes, since in this case the form is being published to the Inbox and not the Organizational Forms Library on the Microsoft Exchange Server.



7. Close and do not save changes to the mail message.

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The earlier implementation of WordMail allows you to use Word as the e-mail editor for the body of a message. The item is basically an Outlook form that supports in-place editing of the message by Word.

One of the new features in Office 2000 is Office E-mail, which is architecturally different than the earlier WordMail implementation. Using Office E-mail, you edit in an Office program, and when you send the file to someone else an "e-mail header" is added. Outlook takes advantage of this new Office-wide feature when you use Word as your default e-mail editor, and your mail format is set to either HTML, or Plain Text. If you use either of these mail formats, instead of using the earlier Outlook WordMail form with an embedded WordMail object, Outlook starts Office E-mail for Word.

REFERENCES

For additional information about available resources and answers to commonly asked questions about Microsoft Outlook 2000 solutions, please see the following article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q146636 OL2000: Questions About Custom Forms and Outlook Solutions

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol2000 OL2K

Keywords : kbdta
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbbug