Outlook Tricks: Attachments Reminder

Tech Tip Tuesday, Presidents' Day Edition – Outlook tricks: Attachments Reminder

Ever send an email and intend to include an attachment and totally forget? Don’t worry, now there’s a simple solution!

This macro is designed to remind you to attach a document each time you mention the word “attach” in any form (e.g., attachment, attached, etc) in an email if you have not actually attached anything. It is very easy to set up (should you decide to use it) and takes no more than a minute to insert.

NOTE: If your email signature has a picture in it, this macro will treat that image as an attachment and won’t work properly. However there’s a spot in the code you can adjust to account for this, just read through the first section to see instructions for adjusting the code.

To install:

1)    Open Outlook and hit Alt+F11 (or go to Tools>Macro>Visual Basic Editor)

2)    On the left you will see “Project 1,” expand it and following subfolders till you see “ThisOutlookSession.” Double click on this and copy the following VB Code into the editor: (EVERYTHING BETWEEN THE “=” BRACKETS)

====================================================

Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)

Dim m As Variant

Dim strBody As String

Dim intIn As Long

Dim intAttachCount As Integer, intStandardAttachCount As Integer

On Error GoTo handleError

'Edit the following line if you have a signature on your email that includes images or other files. Make intStandardAttachCount equal the number of files in your signature.

intStandardAttachCount = 0

strBody = LCase(Item.Body)

intIn = InStr(1, strBody, "original message")

If intIn = 0 Then intIn = Len(strBody)

intIn = InStr(1, Left(strBody, intIn), "attach")

intAttachCount = Item.Attachments.Count

If intIn > 0 And intAttachCount <= intStandardAttachCount Then

  

    m = MsgBox("It appears that you meant to send an attachment," & vbCrLf & "but there is no attachment to this message." & vbCrLf & vbCrLf & "Do you still want to send this email?", vbQuestion + vbYesNo + vbMsgBoxSetForeground)

    If m = vbNo Then Cancel = True

  

End If

handleError:

If Err.Number <> 0 Then

    MsgBox "Outlook Attachment Reminder Error: " & Err.Description, vbExclamation, "Outlook Attachment Reminder Error"

End If

‘-X

End Sub

====================================================

3)    Hit Save and close out of your VBA editor. You’re done!