K
ker_01
I usually play on the Excel VBA playground- I'm not afraid to learn, but I'm
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.
We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.
Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).
Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).
I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.
One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.
I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)
Thank you!
Keith
relatively unfamiliar with the Outlook model.
We currently have some paper forms that I'd like to replace with Outlook
forms (if appropriate). I've done some basic reading, but I want to make sure
I design forms that will actually work as intended. Our needs basically fall
into two categories (examples below): (1) data that needs to be requested by
(and returned to) a central user, and (2) forms that can be used ad-hoc by
end users at any time.
Example 1: Request regulatory compliance data- the compliance person would
email target users, and the email would contain a form. Users would fill it
out, and when they click submit it would send their data back to the
compliance person (preferably in a format easy to transfer to Excel or
Access).
Example 2: Maintenance request- the remote user would initiate the form
within Outlook, fill it out, and clicking 'submit' (which would send the data
to a pre-determined email address or location for review and processing).
I've played around with the form designer, and it isn't too complicated- not
that much different from Excel and Word forms. However, I haven't found
information on the nuances of how to take that form design and turn it into
an outbound email, or make it accessible to all users so they can use it as
needed.
One addition item; there are some forms where we could greatly improve our
business process by providing some drop-down selection boxes. However, the
amount of data that needs to populate those boxes is large enough (thousands
of items) that I'm not inclined to push that to every machine- is there a way
to keep the core data list in a central location, and have the remote forms
access the data only when needed to populate a form? Having the source data
centralized would also make data updates much easier.
I appreciate any pointers to websites that cover these details, books I
should consider buying, or general answers to the above to point me in the
right direction so I can keep experimenting. (Sue Mosher's book is already on
my list, if I can find a local copy)
Thank you!
Keith
