Active Controls and Selected Controls (Outlook)

In design mode, controls have an active state and a selected state. When a control is active, it means that you are working with the contents of the control; when a control is selected, it means that you are working with the control itself.

Most controls are automatically selected when you put them on the form. In design mode, sizing handles appear around the control border when the control is selected. If you cancel the selection, you can click the control to select it again.

When you click a selected control, you put it in the active state. In that state, you can directly edit the control Caption or Value property, depending on the control.

In both the selected and the active state, you can use DEL, CTRL+X, and CTRL+C for the Delete, Cut, and Copy commands, respectively. In the selected state, these commands are available on the shortcut menu and affect the control itself. In the active state, these commands affect whatever text is selected inside the control; if no text is selected, these commands have no effect. These commands are not available on the shortcut menu for active controls.

Note For more information about design mode, see Run in Developer Mode in Outlook.

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