Maintain name of removed attachments - how to?

[Viggo_L]

Hi forum,
I need a method to maintain the name of removed attachments. It will be very useful in, at least, 2 scenarios:
1) When replying to a mail sent with attachment (and where I do not want to reply to all with said attachment);
2) When archiving mails to a repository where attachments are first deleted (by macro).

So basically in situations where the connection between the content of the mail, which often concerns or involves the attachment, is broken. So when retracting an old mail where a certain version of a document is described, it will be impossible to identify which document it concerns.

Any good ideas to do this?
VBA? I am already using a script deleting attachments during archiving.

Thanks!

[Diane Poremsky]

You can add the file name to the body at the time you delete it.

The complete code is at Save and Delete Attachments from Outlook messages - Outlook Tips - this is the snippet you need - this one does the path to where it was saved. You can add just the filename.

 

    ' Adds the filename string to the message body and save it 
    ' Check for HTML body 

    If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then 
        objMsg.Body = objMsg.Body & vbCrLf & _ 
        "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles 
    Else 
        objMsg.HTMLBody = objMsg.HTMLBody & "<p>" & _ 
        "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles & "</p>" 
    End If 
        objMsg.Save

[Viggo_L]

Many thanks for the quick response! It looks like the ting to use, but can it be added to the code I use for deleting attachments?
If so, where should it be inserted to save the names of each attachment for each individual mail before the deletion step is performed?
Below is the code I use for deletion:

----
Sub Delete_attachments_nosave()

Dim Response As VbMsgBoxResult
Response = MsgBox("Do you REALLY want to PERMANENTLY delete all attachments in all SELECTED mails?" _
, vbExclamation + vbDefaultButton2 + vbYesNo)
If Response = vbNo Then Exit Sub

Dim myAttachment As Attachment
Dim myAttachments As Attachments
Dim selItems As Selection
Dim myItem As Object
Dim lngAttachmentCount As Long

' Set reference to the Selection.
Set selItems = ActiveExplorer.Selection

' Loop though each item in the selection.
For Each myItem In selItems
Set myAttachments = myItem.Attachments

lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.Count

' Loop through attachments until attachment count = 0.
While lngAttachmentCount > 0
myAttachments(1).Delete
lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.Count
Wend

myItem.Save
Next

MsgBox "Done. All attachments were deleted.", vbOKOnly, "Message"

Set myAttachment = Nothing
Set myAttachments = Nothing
Set selItems = Nothing
Set myItem = Nothing
End Sub

You can add the file name to the body at the time you delete it.

The complete code is at Save and Delete Attachments from Outlook messages - Outlook Tips - this is the snippet you need - this one does the path to where it was saved. You can add just the filename.

 

    ' Adds the filename string to the message body and save it 
    ' Check for HTML body 

    If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then 
        objMsg.Body = objMsg.Body & vbCrLf & _ 
        "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles 
    Else 
        objMsg.HTMLBody = objMsg.HTMLBody & "<p>" & _ 
        "The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles & "</p>" 
    End If 
        objMsg.Save

[Diane Poremsky]

You are deleting but not saving, so you need to get the filenames as you delete.

My code counts the attachments and counts down rather than looping - so you may need to change your code to do that but try something like this first - (change the i to a 1 for your code)

strFile = myAttachments.Item(i).FileName & "; " & strFile
myAttachments(1).Delete
lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.Count
Wend

If myItem .BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
myItem .Body = myItem .Body & vbCrLf & _
"The file(s) removed were: " & strFile
Else
myItem .HTMLBody = myItem .HTMLBody & "<p>" & _
"The file(s) removed were: " & strFile & "</p>"
End If
myItem .Save

[Diane Poremsky]

Just tested it... you'll need to set strFile = "" - maybe after the save, before it moves to the next message.

[Viggo_L]

Diane, thanks a lot for the code and testing, much appreciated.
However, I can not get the code to run. I have made different attempts and it returns different error messages (such as: "Object required", "Compile error: Wend without While"). Maybe I am missing some crucial parts (I am not proficient enough to detect it myself...).

I have added the script into a module, is that correct?

So maybe a simpler method would help, namely to first run a script putting name/names of the attachment into the mail (not all mails have attachment).
After that I would run the macro to delete the attachments.
I dont know if it simplifies it or if it solves my problem running the code.

Could that solve my problem?


Viggo

[Diane Poremsky]

This is what I did - dropped those lines into your code.

Were you using the code before? If so, replace your code with this code. If not, paste it into a module. And make sure that macro security is low. More info at How to use Outlook's VBA Editor - Slipstick Systems

 


Sub Delete_attachments_nosave()

 Dim Response As VbMsgBoxResult
 Response = MsgBox("Do you REALLY want to PERMANENTLY delete all attachments in all SELECTED mails?" _
 , vbExclamation + vbDefaultButton2 + vbYesNo)
 If Response = vbNo Then Exit Sub

 Dim myAttachment As Attachment
 Dim myAttachments As Attachments
 Dim selItems As Selection
 Dim myItem As Object
 Dim lngAttachmentCount As Long

 ' Set reference to the Selection.
 Set selItems = ActiveExplorer.Selection

 ' Loop though each item in the selection.
 For Each myItem In selItems
 Set myAttachments = myItem.Attachments

 lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.count

 ' Loop through attachments until attachment count = 0.
 While lngAttachmentCount > 0
 strFile = myAttachments.Item(1).FileName & "; " & strFile
 myAttachments(1).Delete
 lngAttachmentCount = myAttachments.count
 Wend
 
 
If myItem.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
 myItem.Body = myItem.Body & vbCrLf & _
 "The file(s) removed were: " & strFile
 Else
 myItem.HTMLBody = myItem.HTMLBody & "<p>" & _
 "The file(s) removed were: " & strFile & "</p>"
 End If
 

 myItem.Save
  strFile = ""
 Next

 MsgBox "Done. All attachments were deleted.", vbOKOnly, "Message"

 Set myAttachment = Nothing
 Set myAttachments = Nothing
 Set selItems = Nothing
 Set myItem = Nothing
 End Sub

[Viggo_L]

Diane, it works beautifully! Apologize that I had to get so detailed out. This is gonna be very useful.

Thanx a lot!