I receive often emails with big attachment that fill my inbox space very quickly.
On the other side, I usually like both to remove these attach and keep the email to preserve the thread for future use. Outlook 2007 don't have this feature so I wrote the following VBA function I added to a button on my client that resolve easily this task.
' by Nicola Delfino
' 30-03-2005: First version
' 26-11-2006: Updated for Outlook 2007
' 28-11-2006: Updated with notes from rgreg
' 09-06-2009: Saves the file(s) to a folder location (thanks to John Harvey and Patrick Philippot)
' Memory problem with many attach to remove (FIXED) (thanks to John Harvey and Patrick Philippot)
' 22-10-2009: Now it uses default "My document folder"
' added HTML and link to saved files (thanks to Steve Evans)
'
' based on code found at on http://www.outlookcode.com/
'
' Setup and instructions
' (1) Digitally sign VBA project
' start->office->Microsoft office tools->digital certificates for VBA
' create a certificate
' (2) sign the code
' from Outlook -> menu -> Tools -> Macros -> Visual Basic Editor (VBA)
' project 1 -> Microsoft Office Outlook -> ThisOutlookSession (double ckick)
' * paste this source code *
' from Microsoft Visual Basic -> menu -> Tools -> digital signature -> (choose certificate previously created)
' (3) add icon on toolbar
' from outlook
' tools->customize (select "Commands" TAB)
' add icon on toolbar
' [rearrange commands] to change icon and name on toolbar
' (4) be sure that tools->macros->security
' on "thrusted publishers" "trust all installed add-ins and templates" is checked
'
'
Private Declare Function SHGetFolderPath Lib "shell32.dll" Alias "SHGetFolderPathA" ( _
ByVal HWnd As Long, ByVal csidl As Long, ByVal hToken As Long, ByVal dwFlags As Long, ByVal pszPath As String) As Long
Private Const MAX_PATH = 260&
Public Sub StripAttachments()
Dim ilocation As String
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolder As String
Dim result
'Put in the folder location you want to save attachments to
ilocation = GetSpecialFolder(&H5) & "\Removed Attachs\" ' CSIDL_MY_DOCUMENTS As Long = &H5"
On Error Resume Next
result = MsgBox("Do you want to remove attachments from selected email(s)?", vbYesNo + vbQuestion)
If result = vbNo Then
Exit Sub
End If
' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
' Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set objOL = Application
' Get the collection of selected objects.
Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection
' Check each selected item for attachments.
' If attachments exist, save them to the Temp
' folder and strip them from the item.
For Each objMsg In objSelection
' This code only strips attachments from mail items.
If objMsg.Class = olMail Then
' Get the Attachments collection of the item.
Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
lngCount = objAttachments.Count
If lngCount > 0 Then
' We need to use a count down loop for
' removing items from a collection. Otherwise,
' the loop counter gets confused and only every
' other item is removed.
strFile = ""
For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
' Save attachment before deleting from item.
' Get the file name.
Dim strHTML As String
strHTML = "<li><a href=" & Chr(34) & "file:" & ilocation & objAttachments.Item(i).FileName & Chr(34) & ">" & objAttachments.Item(i).FileName & "</a><br>" & vbCrLf
strFile = strFile & strHTML
' Save the attachment as a file.
objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile (ilocation & objAttachments.Item(i))
' Save the attachment as a file.
objAttachments.Item(i).Delete
Next i
strFile = "Attachment removed from the message and backup-ed to[<a href='" & ilocation & "'>" & ilocation & "</a>]:<br><ul>" & strFile & "</ul><hr><br><br>" & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
Dim objDoc As Object
Dim objInsp As Outlook.Inspector
Set objInsp = objMsg.GetInspector
Set objDoc = objInsp.WordEditor
objDoc.Characters(1).InsertBefore strFile
objMsg.HTMLBody = strFile + objMsg.HTMLBody
Set objInsp = Nothing
Set objDoc = Nothing
End If
strFile = strFile & vbCrLf & vbCrLf
objMsg.Save
End If
Next
ExitSub:
Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub
Public Function GetSpecialFolder(FolderCSIDL As Long) As String
Dim HWnd As Long
Dim Path As String
Dim Res As Long
Dim ErrNumber As Long
Dim ErrText As String
Path = String$(MAX_PATH, vbNullChar)
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
' get the folder name
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Res = SHGetFolderPath(HWnd:=0&, _
csidl:=FolderCSIDL, _
hToken:=0&, _
dwFlags:=0&, _
pszPath:=Path)
Select Case Res
Case S_OK
Path = TrimToNull(Text:=Path)
GetSpecialFolder = Path
Case S_FALSE
MsgBox "The folder code is valid but the folder does not exist."
GetSpecialFolder = vbNullString
Case E_INVALIDARG
MsgBox "The value of FolderCSIDL is not valid."
GetSpecialFolder = vbNullString
Case Else
ErrNumber = Err.LastDllError
ErrText = "ERROR!"
MsgBox "An error occurred." & vbCrLf & _
"System Error: " & CStr(ErrNumber) & vbCrLf & _
"Description: " & ErrText
End Select
End Function
Public Function TrimToNull(Text As String) As String
Dim N As Long
N = InStr(1, Text, vbNullChar)
If N Then
TrimToNull = Left(Text, N - 1)
Else
TrimToNull = Text
End If
End Function
