How to: Modify a Built-in Action for a Form Region

By default, there are four built-in actions available to a form region: reply, reply-all, reply-to-folder, and forward. You can modify a built-in action in the following ways, by making the specifications in the form region manifest XML file that you register for the form region:

• The message class of the item that results from executing the action.
• The way that the body of the current item is included in the resulting item.
• The way that Outlook responds when executing the action.
• The prefix value in the subject of the resulting item.
• Disabling the built-in action for the form region.

For more information on registering a form region, see Specifying Form Regions in the Windows Registry.

If customizing a built-in action in the above ways does not suit your needs, then you should consider creating a new custom action. For more information, see How to: Create a Custom Action for a Form Region

Identifying Actions for a Form Region

Whether you choose to modify a built-in action or create a custom action, you define the action in the form region manifest XML file. Define these actions under the customActions element, enclosing each action in its own action element and identifying it by the mandatory name attribute. The value of the name attribute is a string that represents the internal name of the action.

To specify the internal name of a built-in action

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the built-in action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.

The following example identifies the two built-in actions, reply and replyAll, before modifying them:

  <customActions>
    <action name="reply">
        <!-- further modify this action -->
    </action>
    <action name="replyAll">
        <!-- further modify this action -->
    </action>
</customActions>

Note that by default, there are four built-in actions for each form region. You can identify them with the following keywords:

Modifying a Built-in Action

After you have identified a built-in action in an action element, you can modify it by specifying optional child elements and attribute for the action element.

To specify the message class and the form for the resulting item

To specify the way that the body of the current item is included in the resulting item

To specify the way that Outlook responds when executing the action

To specify the prefix value in the subject of the resulting item

To disable the built-in action for the form region

1. In the form region manifest XML file, specify the action as a child action element of the customActions element for that form region.
2. Specify the internal name of the action as the value of the name attribute of the action element.
3. Specify true as the value of the disabled attribute of the action element.

The following example identifies the built-in action, replyToFolder, and disables it:

  <customActions>
    <action name="replyToFolder" disabled="true">
    </action>
</customActions>

Note
You can assign disabled either a string value or an integer value. The default value is false or 0. To disable a built-in action for a form region, assign disabled either true or 1.