Save and Delete Attachments

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How To - 160 x 600

The following is the Save Attachment code sample from Teach Yourself Outlook in 24 Hours.

Copy and paste the code from this page into your ThisOutlookSession project. To do this, click in the text box, Select All using Ctrl+A, Ctrl+C to copy.

In Outlook, press Alt+F11 to open the VBA editor and expand Microsoft Outlook Objects then double click on ThisOutlookSession to open it in the editing pane and Ctrl+P to paste the code.

To use, first create a folder under your My Documents named OLAttachments. Then select one or more messages and run the macro to save and remove the attachments. (May wish to comment out the line that deletes the attachment before testing). Remove or comment out the MsgBox lines after testing.

To delete the attachments without saving them, leave just these lines between the If... and End if. (The macro can also be edited to remove the statements above the If command that are no longer needed.)

If lngCount > 0 Then
For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1

' Delete the attachment.
objAttachments.Item(i).Delete

Next i
objMsg.Save

End If

Public Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

    ' Get the path to your My Documents folder
    strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)
    On Error Resume Next

    ' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
    Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")

    ' Get the collection of selected objects.
    Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection

    ' Set the Attachment folder.
    strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"

    'Use the MsgBox command to troubleshoot. Remove it from the final code.
    MsgBox strFolderpath

    ' 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
    
    'Use the MsgBox command to troubleshoot. Remove it from the final code.
    MsgBox 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.
    
    For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
    
    ' Save attachment before deleting from item.
    ' Get the file name.
    strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
    
    ' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
    strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
    
    ' Save the attachment as a file.
    objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
    
    ' Delete the attachment.
    objAttachments.Item(i).Delete
    
    'write the save as path to a string to add to the message
    'check for html and use html tags in link
    If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
        strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & vbCrLf & "<file://" & strFile & ">"
        Else
        strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & "<br>" & "<a href='file://" & _
        strFile & "'>" & strFile & "</a>"
    End If
    
    'Use the MsgBox command to troubleshoot. Remove it from the final code.
    MsgBox strDeletedFiles
    
    Next i
    End If
    
    ' 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
    End If
    Next
    
ExitSub:

Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub