Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of ksmirnov
ksmirnovFlag for Russian Federation

asked on

Message auto-numbering in Outlook

Dear mighty all,

I have an Outlook add-in called "Bells and Whistles for Outlook" by DS Development (http://www.emailaddressmanager.com/). It is a neat piece of software letting me dow many things, message auto-numbering included.
It works like this.
1) I create a new message
2) the subject field already includes something like "[12345]"
3) I type the subject like "[12345] My message subject"

Next time I create a new message, my message counter increases by 1 ([12346]) and the whole story repeats. When I get a reply, this add-in recognises that this is its own number and the subject looks like
"Re:[12345] [1] My message subject"

So far, so good...

However I noticed that there is no activity on the developer's site for more than 4 months by now. I am afraid that this software developer went bust. Do not get me wrong, the add-in still works! But with every new patch for Outlook and other add-ins the cahnces it will stop working get higher and higher.

I desperately need this auto-numbering feature and will gladly replace "Bells and Whistles" for something else which has support.

Can anyone give me an idea:
1) if there is another add-in that can at least autonumber outgoing emails?
2) is it possible to autonumber ougoing emails with a simple VB script?

Thanks a million in advance!
Avatar of David Lee
David Lee
Flag of United States of America image

Hi, ksmirnov.

  1. I've never needed autonumbering, so I don't know if anything is available or not.  Here are links to three sites where you might find an add-in that does this.
    http://www.slipstick.com
    http://www.sperrysoftware.com/Outlook/default.asp
    http://www.mapilab.com/?mapilabs
  2. Yes, it is possible autonumber outgoing emails with a simple bit of scripting.  I've attached sample code below showing how this would work.  The key detail you would need to work out is how to store the message counter.  You could use a database, a text file, possibly even create something in Outlook.
Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
    Dim intNumber As Integer
    If Item.Class = olMail Then
        intNumber = SomeProcessThatReadsAndIncrementsACounter
        Item.Subject = "[" & intNumber & "] " & Item.Subject
        Item.Save
    End If
End Sub

Open in new window

Avatar of ksmirnov

ASKER

Hi, BlueDevilFan

Thanks for the links - I have been to Sperry and MAPI lab sites before - unfortunately non of them have what I want. Slipstick does not have similar add-ons either.

As to your piece of code - that is an interesting idea. Let us see what other people say.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of David Lee
David Lee
Flag of United States of America image

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Avatar of Ot_Gu
Ot_Gu

sorry, commented then created a new question here but couldn't see how to delete this post.