Outlook 2010

You cannot easily create a rule however it is so easy to add contacts in outlook 2010 why would you.  

1.  You can simply drag the mail to the contacts section on the navigation pane and a new contact form partially completed opens.

2.  You can also right click the senders name in the preview pane and choose add to contacts.

It will tell you if the contact already exists and you can choose to create a new contact or simply update the existing one.

Hi there, many thanks for the ideas and yes I agree it does seem like a strange request.  

However my quest is to try and save time by not having to guess whether I do or do not already have them in my contacts. A large volumne of email comes my way and I was hoping to automate the process rather than doing either of the above only to be told they already exist.

Appreciate your help.
Toco

The problem is that with such a rule the contact will popup for all email that is not in contacts, even ones that are from newsgroups etc.  In the longrun these popups will cause you to lose more time by having to cancel ones you don't want.  When you drag to contacts it informs if they are already in your contacts or not.  Manually adding ones will actually save time in the long run or will at least be the same time.  This is the main reason why the feature is not available without manually scripting it.

Via a rule and some script we can look at any SMTP addresses that are in the senders email and add them as contacts either saving without user interaction or leaving the contact open for you to edit ... if that is the wish?

Chris

How would I do that Chris ?

We can provide a script so before then lets set the ground rules!

Macros need to be acceptable - enabled
You need to create a rule to run a script with guidance if nedessary
You need to add some code we supply, again with guidance if required.

The code would run on every received email
The code will save every contact using the email name as a new contact, (unless already found) and you will need to look to open them and edit when it suits you.

The logic here is then that the contacts are saved without holding the screen up for all the edits and you can look to edit them periodically.

The contact fullname can be for example "newbie 1, newbie 2 etc to help them stand out if you would like or pretty much anything else.

If this is ok i'll look to put some code up for you.

Chris

Just tested some code to do it ... adding an incremental number will be fiddly so if agreeable all such 'new' contacts would have a constant fullname of your choosing ... for you to edit when opportunity permits

Chris

Yes, that all sounds fine. So the name constant will serve for all incoming mail from new contacts /

I've inserted the code into Module 1 of my Outlook project. How do I create the rule that calls this routine ?

File | Info | Manage rules and alerts
New Rule | Apply this rule to messages I receive | Next | Next
Accept the warning about running on all messages
Find run a script ... tick it and click the hyperlink navigating to the rule_1 sub
COntinue with next etc and rename as required and the rule should be established at that time

Chris

Could you also give me the above procedure for Outlook 2007 please Chris. I'm currently running this on my old machine.

Not on 2007 here ... I think it is much the same but triggered via tools | rule | new rule

Quick web search says:

In the Navigation Pane, click Mail.
On the Tools menu, click Rules and Alerts.
If you have more than one e-mail account, in the Apply changes to this folder list, click the Inbox you want.
Click New Rule.

I'm getting out of my depth here. The New Rules wizard gives me an error status (see attached screenshots). Doesn't seem to follow the procedure you prescribed for 2010.
SNAG-Program-0004.jpg
SNAG-Program-0005.jpg
SNAG-Program-0006.jpg

See start from a blank rule ... CHeck messages when they arrive

In step 2 you will note a line like:

run script ... a hyperlink you should follow saying I think "Script".  Press the hyperlink ad navigate to the code routine.

I can't add piccies ... I don't know how on this machine!

Chris

Ignore the path ... the key element is selecting rule 1

Chris
Screen-shot-2011-02-17-at-16.12..png

Oh, after all that...it worked !!
Excellent....it catches new contacts and puts them into my Contacts.
I also ran it against the existing InBox and I go to my Contacts and 'Please Name ME' is there a number of times.

Thanks very much for your efforts
Toco

:o)

Always a pleasure when a solution hits the spot!

Chris