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Ideas for new Outlook macros?

An email with a coworker who was recently acquired and is getting accustomed to Outlook after years with PINE reminded me that it's been a while since I wrote any Outlook macros. Plus, I just need an excuse to write some code, I haven't written any in several months and that part of my brain is congealing into a gelatinous blob (oh wait, it's already a gelatinous blob - doh). My last Outlook macro to easily get at the internet headers of messages was super well received (I'm still tickled pink over Devin's "insanely useful" moniker), and so I thought I'd ask my readers if you had any ideas for another macro I could write.

In particular I'm wondering if there are any macros that might be useful to Exchange admins or helpdesk folks as they troubleshoot problems, which is I assume how people are using the last one. I'm a complete hobbyist developer - I only code to solve problems I or other people have. But boy it is fun to turn around quick little macros to help people be more productive or prevent oopses.

Got any ideas, post 'em here and i'll see what I can do...

Comments

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Here's an idea. A Macro that would copy your current Outlook Signature to Outlook Web Access. I've been trying to find where the Outlook Web Access Signatures are stored in both 2003 and 2007 exchange (some hidden message in the mailbox perhaps?), but I don't have the answer to that, as much as I want it. Perhaps even include some options that only an exchange admin can set such as max signature length (You could use OWAAdmin in 2003, but there doesn't seem to be an OWAAdmin for 2007...yet)

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    Publishing Exchange Client Access with ISA 2006 - The Complete Solution (Part 2) Monitoring Exchange

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    I have a need for a macro that can delete all appointments by date range and category. I will be importing data from an outside program and have no ability to 'merge' the data into Exchange, so I want to delete all appointments from given category each morning.  If you or someone is able and willing to create this Macro and test it with me I would gladly pay a fee for it (I hope this is ok to say on this site). dave

  • Anonymous
    January 01, 2003
    How about a startup macro to "Publish to GAL" if the user has not done so already or the currently published certs are expired? Most of the end-users I've dealt with in 12 years of working DoD (predominantly Army and Air Force) have difficulty following directions on their own even with step-by-step images, etc. "Publish to GAL" is only about 7 clicks and yet it is "too much effort" or "confusing". In the past, encrypting email was not a big issue and rarely done (except in DMS; yes I went there), but as CAC is becoming king of authentication new policies are dictating that all official email be not only signed but encrypted (especially if it contains personal info such as SSN). So this little macro would be 'very' helpful for those of us "on the ground" with the customers (e.g, DoD, Army, AF, N/MC teams). -- AntGut

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2007
    I have a suggestion - and maybe it's not an appropriate use of a macro, I'm not sure, but it's something I'd really like to have - a way to have deleted messages automatically moved to an archive folder. I've been using Gmail for my personal mail and I love the way I click "Archive" instead of "Delete" and the message disappears, but it's still searchable. Neither the Vista desktop search nor Google Desktop Search search in the Deleted Items folder, and even if they did, I have to keep clearing things out of it. because of the quota limit. What I've been doing is manually moving messages from Deleted Items into an Archived Mail 2007.pst but I'd like to have this whole process automated. Actually what I'd really like is to have a message moved there when I hit the Del key. Maybe there's an easy way to do this but I haven't run across it..

  • Anonymous
    June 20, 2007
    was he super excited that it was insanely useful?

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2007
    I have two accounts - 1 IMAP and 1 Exchange configured in Outlook. Every time I send an email, I need to select the Account from the "Accounts" list in the Toolbar. Many times I forget to select the correct Account when sending an email. It would be great to have a macro that presents me with a way to select the Account I plan to send this email from when I hit the "Send" button, if that is possible. Thanks, Murali myelaman@gmail.com

  • Anonymous
    June 22, 2007
    I'd be interested in a Macro that would automatically unzip any WinZipped files attached to any messages received into a particular folder, and put them into some directory.  Or, a skeleton that would supply syntax to call a 'generic' application, and I could customize it for WinZip. Would that be of any use to anybody else too? Todd

  • Anonymous
    August 06, 2007
    The comment has been removed

  • Anonymous
    August 08, 2007
    I've seen add-ins etc, but would like to see a macro that I could use/modify for my own purposes.  Perhaps something that you could choose what criterian to use to determine if the email are a match.

  • Anonymous
    September 05, 2007
    I am the filer-sort of email user("How do you manage your mail?" http://blogs.technet.com/kclemson/archive/2004/08/30/223117.aspx). I would like to see a macro that copies all emails from a specific year given by the user to an archive (year.pst), keeping the folder structure. This would prevent the pst from turning too big and still make it easy to find the information.

  • Anonymous
    September 13, 2007
    How about a macro that would move the current message selection to the Next / Previous UNREAD message in the current folder? This is a feature in so many other email readers, I can't believe its not in Outlook.   Thanks!

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2007
    Hi. I would like to be able to set a macro to automatically forward messages I receive from a certain person to another person BUT with a covering email that I can design myself that gives the person to whom I am forwarding the mail a set of instructions to go with it. Is that possible?