OL97: How to Simulate a Form "Create" Event in VBScript

ID: Q174515

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 97

SUMMARY

Microsoft Outlook 97 does not provide a Microsoft Visual Basic Scripting Edition (VBScript) event that executes only when a new Outlook item is created. This article describes a method you can use to simulate this functionality.

MORE INFORMATION

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http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

When a new form is created, Outlook executes an Item_Open event in VB Script. However, once the item is saved in a folder, the Item_Open event will also execute when the item is reopened. In addition, Outlook will also execute the Item_Read event when an item is opened from a folder.

The following sample VBScript code illustrates how you can place code in the Item_Open event so that it will only run when the item is first created. It checks to see if the Created field of the item is populated. If the Created field does not have a date value, the item must be a new item. If the Created field is populated with a date value, the item has already been saved and is therefore being reopened.


   Sub Item_Open()

      MsgBox "This is the Item_Open event."

      ' 1/1/4501 represents a date field with no value.
      If Item.CreationTime = #1/1/4501# Then
         MsgBox "Open: Code to run when item created goes here."
      Else
         MsgBox "Open: Code to run when item opened goes here."
      End If

   End Sub

   Sub Item_Read()

      MsgBox "This is the Item_Read event."

   End Sub

REFERENCES

For more information about creating solutions with Microsoft Outlook 97, please see the following articles in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

Q166368 OL97: How to Get Help Programming with Outlook

Q170783 OL97: Q&A: Questions about Customizing or Programming Outlook

Additional query words: OutSol OutSol97 initialize activate

Keywords : kbcode kbprg
Version : WINDOWS:97
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto