Controls in a Custom Form

Article
01/22/2022

Form controls allow you to customize the user interface and behavior of a custom form. Because all code behind a form is called from a form event or a control event, programming the response to control events is one of the primary means to extend a form programmatically. This topic describes adding and displaying Microsoft Forms 2.0 controls and Microsoft Outlook controls in Outlook forms. For information on programming Forms 2.0 controls, see the Form Script Reference. For more information on programming Outlook controls, see the Object Model Reference.

Design Time

In the forms designer, you can add a control from the control toolbox to a form page or a form region. The control toolbox is initialized with a number of Forms 2.0 controls. You can add other ActiveX controls that have been installed on your computer to the control toolbox.

Microsoft Forms 2.0 Controls

The following Forms 2.0 controls exist in the control toolbox by default:

Microsoft Forms 2.0 CheckBox control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ComboBox control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 CommandButton control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Frame control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Image control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Label control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ListBox control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 MultiPage control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 OptionButton control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ScrollBar control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 SpinButton control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 TabStrip control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 TextBox control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ToggleButton control

Microsoft Outlook Controls

The following table lists Outlook controls that are installed on your computer when you install Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 or a later version of Outlook. These controls support Microsoft Windows themes. Before you can use them in Outlook forms, you must first add them to the control toolbox.

Use these controls only in form regions and not form pages in custom forms.

Some of these controls are designed to leverage features in Outlook, for example, the Microsoft Outlook Body Control is designed to display the body of an Outlook item. All of the Outlook controls are designed for use only in Outlook add-ins.

Control	Designed for Specific Outlook Features
Microsoft Outlook Body Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Business Card Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Category Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Check Box Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Combo Box Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Command Button Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Contact Photo Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Date Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Frame Header Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook InfoBar Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Label Control	No
Microsoft Outlook List Box Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Option Button Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Page Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Recipient Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Sender Photo Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Text Box Control	No
Microsoft Outlook Time Control	Yes
Microsoft Outlook Time Zone Control	Yes

Run Time

On custom form pages, Forms 2.0 controls are always displayed with a classic look without Windows theming. In a form region, any Forms 2.0 control that has a themed Outlook counterpart control assumes an appearance that is themed to Windows and in fact can be cast with the type of the counterpart. For example, if the user has dropped a Forms 2.0 TextBox control in a form region, programmatically, Outlook will replace this instance of the control by an instance of the Outlook counterpart control, and you'll be able to apply a cast of Microsoft.Office.Interop.Outlook.OlkTextBox to this control and access it as an Outlook TextBox control. You should not access it as a Microsoft.VBE.Interop.Forms.TextBox control. For more information on casting controls in an add-in, see Extending a Form Region with an Add-in. The following table lists each Forms 2.0 control and the corresponding Outlook control (if one exists).

Forms 2.0 Control	Outlook Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 CheckBox control	Microsoft Outlook Check Box Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ComboBox control	Microsoft Outlook Combo Box Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 CommandButton control	Microsoft Outlook Command Button Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Frame control	Microsoft Outlook Frame Header Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Image control	(No parity)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 Label control	Microsoft Outlook Label Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ListBox control	Microsoft Outlook List Box Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 MultiPage control	(No parity)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 OptionButton control	Microsoft Outlook Option Button Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ScrollBar control	(No parity)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 SpinButton control	(No parity)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 TabStrip control	(No parity)
Microsoft Forms 2.0 TextBox control	Microsoft Outlook Text Box Control
Microsoft Forms 2.0 ToggleButton control	(No parity)

Because Outlook controls are installed on computers running Office Outlook 2007 or later, a form that contains these controls will not be displayed properly in any earlier version of Outlook.

Summary

The following summarizes the differences between Forms 2.0 controls and Outlook controls:

Comparison Aspect	Forms 2.0 Controls	Outlook Controls
Available in Outlook 2003 or earlier	Yes	No
Available in Office Outlook 2007 or later	Yes	Yes
Exists in control toolbox by default	Yes	No
How displayed on a form page in Office Outlook 2007 or later	Classic look without Windows theming	Do not use Outlook controls in custom form pages, but use only in form regions
How displayed in a form region in Office Outlook 2007 or later	Displayed as its themed counterpart, if one exists, and can be cast with the type of its themed counterpart; classic look if themed counterpart does not exist	Themed look
Controls displayed properly in runtime in Outlook 2003 or earlier	Yes	No
Controls displayed properly in runtime in Office Outlook 2007 or later	Yes	Yes

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