Outlook Attachment Extractor is a flexible solution to extract attachments from emails received with Outlook automatically. The program allows you to use properties of emails for dynamic naming of the storage folder or file name of the attachment to be extracted. For example, you can integrate the receipt year or the email sender name into the folder name. By using the filter, emails to be processed can be strictly limited. All settings made, for example, the Outlook folders to be monitored or the filter criteria are stored in individual profiles.
The help describes the features of the program and gives instructions for using Outlook Attachment Extractor. PDF version of the program
Use this menu item to open the dialog window for customizing the program options.
This menu entry opens the registration dialog to enter the license key respectively to unlock the full version of the program.
Clicking on this menu item opens the online help in the default browser. To use the online help, an active Internet connection is required.
Using this menu item, the dialog window to display the program version of the license state will be opened. This dialog window contains also links to contact the technical support, the product's web page etc.
In case of technical problems, you can create a bug report by using this menu item. The created file is named "Outlook Attachment Extractor - error report" and located on the Desktop. You can then send us the error report attached to an email with a short description of the problem.
This menu item allows you to store the entire application data (profiles, log, etc.) as ZIP archive in a directory to be selected. After saving the ZIP archive is highlighted in the Explorer.
This menu entry can be used to restore previously saved application data.
Opens a dialog window for mass recovery of attachments that have been replaced by a link file in the e-mail (ATTLNK file).
Opens a dialog window for mass adjusting the path of outsourced attachments. This allows you to view or restore the stored attachments even after moving the storage folder.
Use this menu item to exit the program.
This menu entry opens a new window in which the period for an email receipt date can be defined. After confirmation, all emails received during this period (in the monitored folders) are subsequently processed using all active profiles. The limitation of the period is optional.
With this button, you can set all profiles to the status Active, i. e. the profiles are applied to newly received emails.
This button sets all profiles to the status Inactive, i. e. the profiles are ignored when processing newly received emails.
Clicking this button deletes all profiles after a confirmation prompt.
This menu item is used to import profiles from a CSV file. First, select the file to import, and then assign the appropriate profile properties to the contained columns. The following profile properties must be assigned:
For logical values applies: Specify the value 1 for an activated and 0 for a deactivated check box
For enumerations/pick lists applies: The value to be specified corresponds to the zero-based index within the list
Example:
Clicking this button opens the dialog window for creating a new profile.
This button opens the window for editing the settings of the currently selected profile in the list. Alternatively, double-click the profile you want to edit.
Creates a copy of the selected profile. To create a larger number of profiles, you should also consider the CSV import of profiles.
Clicking this button opens a new window in which the period for an email receipt date can be defined. After confirmation, all emails received during this period (in the monitored folders) are subsequently processed using the currently selected profile. The limitation of the period is optional.
With this button, you can set the selected profiles to the status Active, i. e. the profiles are applied to newly received emails.
This button sets the selected profiles to the status Inactive, i. e. the profiles are ignored when processing newly received emails.
By clicking the button, you can delete the selected profiles after a confirmation prompt.
Newly created profiles are given the status "active". All profiles with this status will be applied to incoming emails. To disable a profile, click the check box at the beginning of each row. The status then changes to "inactive".
The name of the profile.
Shows date and time of the last successful application of the profile.
An optional comment to the profile.
The context menu of the profile list contains the following entries:
Here you can give the profile a meaningful name.
Optionally, you can enter a comment that will be displayed in the profile list.
Here you can add one or more email folders. The profile is applied to all added email folders, if the specified filter criteria are met. When the option "Including sub-folders" is activated, additionally, all emails from folders which are subordinate to the added folders are processed.
Here you specify the (optional) conditions that must be met by the email properties. Only if all filter criteria are met, the email is processed. You can use logical comparison operators to set several conditions for an email property. In this case, the "AND" operator takes precedence over the "OR" operator. The filter is case insensitive - no distinction is made between uppercase and lowercase letters of the entered terms. Wildcards as the asterisk are not supported.
Enter an optional name or partial name of the sender of the email to be processed.
Enter an optional email address or a partial address of the sender.
Enter an optional name or partial name of the recipient of the email to be processed.
Enter an optional email address or a partial address of the recipient.
Enter here optional the subject or a part of a subject.
Enter here an optional file name or part of a file name of an email attachment.
In order to process only certain file types such as PDF files, simply enter the term ".pdf". If a specific word (for example, invoice) should be contained additionally in the attachment filename, the entry would look like this: .pdf<AND>invoice
If the option "Storage location - Save all attachments into the same folder" is enabled, the filters Filename Contains/Does Not Contain are only used to define an attachment to be used for dynamic naming, i. e. to use certain parts of the name of the attachment defined by the filter for the folder or file name.
Enter here optional, for example, an email address or a part of an email address. This filter option is, inter alia, helpful when using alias email addresses. Normally, you should prefer the filter for the sender or recipient address.
Optionally enter the message text or a part of the message text.
Optionally, specify here the allowed file size of the attachment. The default setting is "not evaluated". The following restrictions can be defined:
In the program options, you can specify whether the value displayed in Outlook or the actual file size should be used to determine the file size.
Here you determine where the extracted attachments should be stored. In the input field labeled "Directory" you specify the base folder e.g., "C:\Data\Invoices\". This path cannot contain dynamic name parts. The input field "Folder" can be left blank - but there is also the possibility to assemble the folder name from parts of the respective email properties such as the receipt year. More levels of subfolders can be formed by adding the appropriate path separator "\". The input field for the file name can also be left blank or contain placeholders for individual email properties. The preview shows the complete path to let you check the result in advance. The spaces at the beginning and end of each folder are only for better clarity and are not included in subsequent use of the profile. If a file with the specified name already exists, the chosen name collision rule will be applied.
Select the base directory where the attachments should to be stored by clicking on the button with the label "...".
Use the Link Menu above the input field to select email properties that should be used to create an optional subfolder structure within the base directory.
Use the Link Menu above the input field to select email properties from which the file name should be generated. If you leave this field empty, the original name of the email attachment is used.
Enter here optional the expected (or a similar) file name of the attachment to be processed. This can be useful if you want to compose a new file name from parts of the original attachment file name. To change the preview file name, click on "Preview".
Enter here optional the expected (or a similar) subject of the emails to be processed. This can be useful if you want to use parts of the subject for the folder or file name. To change the Preview Subject, click on "Preview".
This option is required if the storage location is to be dynamically generated from the name or a part of the name of a specific attachment (for example, if an order number should be part of the name of a sub-folder) and all additional attachments should be stored into the same folder. In this case, enter into the field with the label "File name contains" the name or a part of the name of the attachment to be used as reference and enable the option.
If this option is enabled, the filters Filename Contains/Does Not Contain are only used to define an attachment to be used for dynamic naming, i. e. to use certain parts of the name of the attachment defined by the filter for the folder or file name.
If a file with the distinguished name already exists, the collision rule determined here will be applied. Decide whether the program should: overwrite the file, add a number or the processing date to the name, or cancel the operation.
If this option is enabled, all files in a ZIP archive are extracted. If necessary, a password for the ZIP archive can be stored. By using the optional filter for the name of the files to be extracted, these can be restricted. You can also specify whether the ZIP archive should additionally be stored in the storage folder. The option "Insert ZIP archive name as prefix into the name of the extracted files" allows the unique naming of the files to be extracted if their names are always the same and instead the names of the ZIP archives vary.
Here you can set whether the email should be marked as read after successful processing. If the access type "Use add-in" is selected in the program options (section "Outlook"), it can also be distinguished whether a requested read receipt will be sent. Otherwise, the Outlook options to send a read receipt apply.
Here you specify whether the email should be moved into the specified directory after successful processing.
Up to three email forwardings can be set up here. For each forwarding, you can specify which of the original attachments to include.
If this option is activated, the stored attachments of the email will be replaced by a link file. This contains the path to the file and has the file extension ".attlnk". By double-clicking on the replaced attachment of the email, a drop-down menu appears with the following options:
In the program options on the tab Other, you can specify that instead of displaying the selection menu, one of the three options above is always executed.
The stored attachments are not replaced in the following cases:
For automatic further processing, the path of the extracted attachment can be passed to a program as parameter. Here, you can optionally enter the path of a program that should be executed after the successful extraction of an attachment.
Optionally enter one or more parameters that should be passed to the program to be executed by using the link menu.
Here you can optionally select a wave file that you want to play after successful processing.
The log list contains information about all processed emails within the period that is specified in the program options. By default, this period is 30 days. With a click on the respective column header, the sorting of the list can be adjusted.
The context menu contains the following entries:
Here you can define settings such as the language of the user interface and the starting behavior.
Determines how Outlook will be accessed. The following types are available:
Determines whether the program creates its own Outlook instance for automation. The following options are available:
If this option is activated, the program automatically calls the Outlook function "Send/Receive all" at the interval set below, if Outlook is not opened.
Determines at what interval (in seconds) "Outlook Attachment Extractor" checks whether new messages have been received.
By default, errors that occur when saving an attachment are displayed in a dialog box. The program flow is interrupted until acknowledgement is confirmed (by clicking OK). Activating this option will disable this behavior. Any errors that may have occurred are then only visible in the log.
With this option, you can limit the number of messages to be processed per run. In addition, when using the Catch Up function with this option activated, a pause of the length of the defined interval is made after each processed email.
This option should only be activated if the program hangs in the processing of a particular email. Some emails may differ from the standard or contain corrupted information. When the option is activated, the time available to process an email is limited. However, this increases the likelihood that your Outlook installation cannot be automated by the program.
If this option is activated, the file date (date of creation, last modification and last access) of the saved attachments is set to the date of receipt of the respective email.
Here you can specify whether the value displayed in Outlook or the actual file size should be used to determine the file size. Since the calculation of the actual file size is considerably more expensive, it is recommended to use the value displayed in Outlook.
Here you can specify the retention period of the log entries. The value set here determines the oldest recorded email receipt date and is relevant if emails are moved manually or subsequently into the monitored folder. Subsequently moved emails are only processed if their date of receipt is newer than the oldest email date recorded in the log.
If you activate this option, the log list entries are colored alternately, depending on the current sort criterion.
This option serves to simplify the automated further processing of the attachments, since only letters, numbers, underscores and a dot to separate the file extension remain in the file name.
The option allows to remove subject prefixes such as "FW: ", "Re: " etc. from a subject to be used for the folder name. Separate multiple prefixes with a semicolon.
By double-clicking on the attachment that has been replaced with a link file, per default a drop-down menu with the following options appears:
Here you have the option to specify instead one of the actions listed above, which should be executed without further asking.