Print e-mails in PST Folder (Outlook XP)

Topic

New Reply

I have been given a CD with 2,000+ e-mails that need to be printed to pdf [i.e. I have adobe acrobat v6 on my PC]. I am openning each e-mail and then printing it to a pdf [ i.e., Adobe acrobat is the default printer]. I need to keep each e-mail in order so I am naming the e-mail pdf’s e_mail_1, e_mail_2, e_mail_3, etc. My question is whether a vba macro or vb code would be able to be applied and open each e-mail, print it to pdf [i.e. using my naming convention] and move on to the next one. Otherwise, I will spend days abd days doing this task.

Some of the e-mails do have attachments [excel–multiple tabs, word–simple letters, and some pdf’s–the pdfs only need copied to the same folder where the e-mail pdfs are being stored], but I can go back and print the attachments manually if need be. For example, when I print an excel or word attachment to pdf, it is named e-mail_1_attchment_a [i.e. I am assuming that this is the very first e-mail in the folder…the e_mail_#—where # equals the number of the e-mail in the folder ] . If there are more than one attachments on the e-mail, then the second attachment pdf is named e-mail_1_attachment_b.

Is there any code available to help me? Thank you.

Reply | Quote

Replies

I have been given a CD with 2,000+ e-mails that need to be printed to pdf [i.e. I have adobe acrobat v6 on my PC]. I am openning each e-mail and then printing it to a pdf [ i.e., Adobe acrobat is the default printer]. I need to keep each e-mail in order so I am naming the e-mail pdf’s e_mail_1, e_mail_2, e_mail_3, etc. My question is whether a vba macro or vb code would be able to be applied and open each e-mail, print it to pdf [i.e. using my naming convention] and move on to the next one. Otherwise, I will spend days abd days doing this task.

Some of the e-mails do have attachments [excel–multiple tabs, word–simple letters, and some pdf’s–the pdfs only need copied to the same folder where the e-mail pdfs are being stored], but I can go back and print the attachments manually if need be. For example, when I print an excel or word attachment to pdf, it is named e-mail_1_attchment_a [i.e. I am assuming that this is the very first e-mail in the folder…the e_mail_#—where # equals the number of the e-mail in the folder ] . If there are more than one attachments on the e-mail, then the second attachment pdf is named e-mail_1_attachment_b.

Is there any code available to help me? Thank you.

This isn’t exactly the answer you are looking for but .. have you considered selecting all the messages and then right clicking and selecting print (to Adobe) and have them all print in order to one big file?

Reply | Quote

This isn’t exactly the answer you are looking for but .. have you considered selecting all the messages and then right clicking and selecting print (to Adobe) and have them all print in order to one big file?

Thanks for the feedback…but you’re right that isn’t the answer that I was looking for. Each e-mail must be in a separate pdf that will be bates stamped. I have not been able to find any Outlook addins that will do this either…so suggestions are still welcome. Thanks.

Reply | Quote

Two suggestions you can try on a test basis before you hit all 2,000 messages:
1. Instead of Shift-clicking a range of messages, Ctrl-click them all individually – I think this way they are printed as separate jobs.
2. If the result is acceptable to you, when the Print dialog pops, check the box marked “Print attached files. Attachments will print to the default folder” (which I assumes means that you will need to set the PDF print driver as your default for this operation).

Reply | Quote

Two suggestions you can try on a test basis before you hit all 2,000 messages:
1. Instead of Shift-clicking a range of messages, Ctrl-click them all individually – I think this way they are printed as separate jobs.
2. If the result is acceptable to you, when the Print dialog pops, check the box marked “Print attached files. Attachments will print to the default folder” (which I assumes means that you will need to set the PDF print driver as your default for this operation).

JohnBF,
I will try this tommorrow when I return to the office and post back with my result. Thanks.
JimC

Reply | Quote

Two suggestions you can try on a test basis before you hit all 2,000 messages:
1. Instead of Shift-clicking a range of messages, Ctrl-click them all individually – I think this way they are printed as separate jobs.
2. If the result is acceptable to you, when the Print dialog pops, check the box marked “Print attached files. Attachments will print to the default folder” (which I assumes means that you will need to set the PDF print driver as your default for this operation).

JohnBF,
Apparently the selection process does not matter [i.e. ctrl-click versus shift-clicking] as the pdf file that is created is a “merged” copy of all e-mails selected. The only way I seem to be able to get a single PDF is by printing one at a time. Any one else have an idea? Thanks.
JimC

Reply | Quote

Apparently the selection process does not matter [i.e. ctrl-click versus shift-clicking] as the pdf file that is created is a “merged” copy of all e-mails selected. The only way I seem to be able to get a single PDF is by printing one at a time. Any one else have an idea?

As long as each message starts on a new pages, you can use Acrobat’s “Extract” feature to create individual PDFs over arbitrary page ranges from your big file. Not much of a time saver, though.

I wonder whether there is a more customized solution for this — short of buying an entire document archiving system, of course.

Reply | Quote

As long as each message starts on a new pages, you can use Acrobat’s “Extract” feature to create individual PDFs over arbitrary page ranges from your big file. Not much of a time saver, though.

I wonder whether there is a more customized solution for this — short of buying an entire document archiving system, of course.

Yes, it would appear that buying an entire document archiving system is the only “real” solution…so since that’s nothing happening, I’ll spend the next 4-5 days printing e-mails. I tried the acrobat extract feature on a sample of 20 e-mails…and it separated some e-mails correctly but not all. I ended up only 17 individual pdf’s when I should have had 20.

Reply | Quote

The only way I seem to be able to get a single PDF is by printing one at a time. Any one else have an idea?

Jim I looked at this some more. Outlook has very limited VBA printing Methods, and although I was able to get messages to print individually to PDF through code, it required:
1. That the PDF driver be set as the PC default printer
2. That every message and attachment requires responses to the prompt for the PDF name and save location, which was annoying with even a small test.

Perhaps there’s a bulk way to process messages that are already saved to disk to PDFs – if so the code in [post=”718644″]the attachment to this post[/post] may be helpful.

Good luck with this, post back if you find an expedient way to do it.

Reply | Quote

Jim I looked at this some more. Outlook has very limited VBA printing Methods, and although I was able to get messages to print individually to PDF through code, it required:
1. That the PDF driver be set as the PC default printer
2. That every message and attachment requires responses to the prompt for the PDF name and save location, which was annoying with even a small test.

Perhaps there’s a bulk way to process messages that are already saved to disk to PDFs – if so the code in [post=”718644″]the attachment to this post[/post] may be helpful.

Good luck with this, post back if you find an expedient way to do it.

JohnBF,
Thanks…I will expand the referenced post…take care. If I can’t make it faster it looks like many days of work as I was just handed another CD with 2,700 e-mails with attachments.
JimC

Reply | Quote