what will cause OFT forms to be blank when opened?

[RUFian]

When opening any .OFT template the email appears blank or I receive a message
"The messaging interface has returned an unknown error" Restart Outlook. Any
clues on the repair? And If I chose the form through the toolbar the form
appears.

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

Did you recently install Office 2003 Service Pack 2? If so, then this is a planned change in behavior. You'll need to either use a published form or the Choose Form command.

--
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

"RUFian" <RUF...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:0954AAA2-137F-4B5D...@microsoft.com...

[RUFian]

Sorry, I was not totally specific. This issue is affecting several pc's with
Office XP (they get the error message to restart outlook) SP unknown at this
time and some pc's with Office 2003 SP2 and the OFT is from the intranet.
Even though my PC is Office 2003 with SP2, opening the OFT gives me a blank
new email without the form data. And Yes the form data appears if I save to
desktop and then Choose the Form through the tools menu. And for testing I
had a few PC's that had Office 2003 SP1, they were able to open the form,
applied office 2003 SP2 and they still were able to open the form from the
intranet with no problems.

You also mentioned behavior, are there any registry keys or security
settings that I can modify to change this behavior?

And yes I am researching the forums and other resources for a possible
solution. Of course, if you have any references that you can referme to.

Thanks in Advance.

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

> Sorry, I was not totally specific. This issue is affecting several pc's with
> Office XP (they get the error message to restart outlook) SP unknown at this
> time and some pc's with Office 2003 SP2 and the OFT is from the intranet.

Let us know when you have more information from the Office XP machines, including build number and the text of the error message. It would probably also be useful to know whether these machines can open .oft files from their local drives. At the very least, I'd run Help | Detect and Repair.

> Even though my PC is Office 2003 with SP2, opening the OFT gives me a blank
> new email without the form data. And Yes the form data appears if I save to
> desktop and then Choose the Form through the tools menu.

This is the new normal behavior for an .oft template that includes custom properties that don't appear in the folder where the items are being saved. The article at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=907985 describes the changes in detail.

> And for testing I
> had a few PC's that had Office 2003 SP1, they were able to open the form,
> applied office 2003 SP2 and they still were able to open the form from the
> intranet with no problems.

It may be that because they'd used the form before SP2, they already had the custom properties available in the target folder.

> You also mentioned behavior, are there any registry keys or security
> settings that I can modify to change this behavior?

No. The behavior can't be changed.

> "Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote:
>
>> Did you recently install Office 2003 Service Pack 2? If so, then this is a planned change in behavior. You'll need to either use a published form or the Choose Form command.
>>

[RUFian]

Thank you Sue.

I used the article at http://support.microsoft.com/?id=907985 for Office
2003 SP2 and I was able to use the AllowMSG.... key only to resolve my forms
issue. This is only temporary until we start using the security Certificates.

The issue I am having with Office XP SP2 is related to security and
installation modifications, which I am unable to locate at this time. I am
still looking for a work around or the registry keys to modify to fix the
issue with opening the .OFT files as described below. Detect and Repair did
not resolve it.

With Outlook closed and I double click on the saved .oft on my desktop, I
receive a message that Outlook cannot start. File associations are good and
have been recreated with no resolve.

With Outlook Open and I double click on the .oft, I get a message - The
messaging interface has returned an unknown error. If the problem persists,
restart Outlook.

Thanks again

[RUFian]

Correction - Office XP Service Pack 3 installed. And uninstalling and
reinstalling Office is not an option. Thanks again.

[Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]]

This happens with just one .oft file? What about a new one that you save from a custom form? Since you have Outlook 2002 SP3 (per your other post), the article I suggested would not apply.

--
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

"RUFian" <RUF...@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message news:F3E135F1-92DB-431F...@microsoft.com...