The following add-ins will help you manage the attachments you receive on an email. Most of these tools are used in Outlook; a few are for use with Exchange server.
Many of these utilities will remove attachments from the email message and can replace them with links to the attachment on your hard drive, allowing you easy access to the attachment while keeping your mailbox or personal folders smaller. You can also use VBA to save attachments to the hard drive. See Save Attachments for sample code.
Others will remind you to add attachments (and subject lines) to outgoing email, compress (zip) attachments, or allow you to unblock attachments blocked by the security features of Outlook 2000 and higher.
See More Information for links to VBA Samples to save attachments and check for blank subject lines.
Tools in the Spotlight
The Attachment Forget-Me-Not Outlook add-in scans each outgoing email for phrases like "see attached" or "draft version". It then asks you if you meant to attach a file before sending the email, giving you a chance to insert the attachment. Version 4.0 is being released that works with both Outlook 2010 32-bit and Outlook 2010 64-bit. | |
Sperry Software's Attachment Save Add-In for Outlook saves emails and/or attachments to your Windows folders, either all at once (in a batch) or as they arrive. It also now has support for Outlook 2010, both 32-bit and 64-bit. In addition, Sperry Software now has fully functional 14-day trial versions on its entire product line. | |
Three-in-one solution. Attachments Processor allows extracting attachments from the incoming messages and save them to your hard disk (extracted attachments are replaced in the incoming message with a link to the file on the disk or a text file with an attachment description as well and a link to it). Attachments Zip Compressor: allows automatic archiving the attached files by ZIP both for incoming and outgoing messages. It can create self-extracting archives and password-protected archives. Blocked Attachments management: utility for managing the list of attachment types, which are blocked by the Outlook security system. | |
Save attachments as system files either as part of a Rules Wizard rule or manually, from either a folder view or the Advanced Find window. Can create subfolders to organize attachments by sender or date, pass an attachment to a script or other program, add a link in messages to point to the detached file, filter on attachment names, and automatically zip or unzip attachments. Version 5.5.1.327. | |
Mail Attender provides comprehensive content management in PST files (personal storage folders) on desktops/servers, mailboxes and public folders. With MA Enterprise, administrators can distribute/enforce common policies, archive data and search content in multiple information stores from a central web interface. Also, can track statistical information such as total message/attachment count, size and type while tracking usage of individual users. Works with Exchange 5.5, 2000, 2003, 2007. | |
View thumbnails of image attachments, run a slideshow of attached picture files without to saving the attachments to disk. Quickly save all attachments to a folder or easily export every attachment in every message in the current folder. Preview image attachments as you add them to a new e-mail message, view the extended file properties of images that were taken with a digital camera (camera model, date picture taken, exposure time, etc.) Works with all common image files. Supports Vista and optimized for Outlook 2007. Version 2. | |
Print just the attachments or just the email message (with the attachment file names). New "Print Both" button allows you to select multiple emails and then print both emails and their attachments. Now uses internal routines as the default for printing to PDF for a better printing experience. Version 3.5 Enter code WD9BHK53 during checkout. |
Tools
Attach Plus improves the way businesses send e-mail attachments by reducing the time and complexity it takes to PDF, ZIP and password protect attachments. Zip attachments or convert them to PDF format and password protect them before sending, automatically. Version 2.2.7 | |
Attach2Link replaces large attachments with a "blind-link" in the message and stores the original file on a website through an FTP transfer or Web-http transfer. Slimmed down messages can be sent without fear of rejection and local storage space is dramatically reduced as attachments are replaced by a link to a file remotely stored. | |
The MADSolutions Attachment Analyzer is a free utility provided by MADSolutions to allow users to assess their mailbox or PST/OST files and obtain some interesting information with respect to messages and attachments. The MADSolutions Attachment Analyzer accesses the current Outlook profile and generates a report on the number of folders, messages, and attachments found in addition to the amount of space used by attachments and the approximate mailbox size. | |
Helps control the storage space needed for Exchange/Outlook messages by removing attachments from Exchange mailboxes. Rules and other tools for managing attachments. Rules can be set up to act on arrival, on reading, on sending or after so many days. | |
Attachment management addin for Microsoft Outlook enables you to detach attachments and embedded images as files in a local or network drive and link them up within the emails, for easy reference and retrieval. This reduces your Inbox size and makes Outlook run much faster and also removes the requirement for constantly archiving emails. Remove links and re-attach files back when required, or when replying or forwarding the emails. You can also set Attachment Manager to monitor any number of mail-enabled folders and mailboxes to automatically detach incoming emails, with no manual intervention. Optionally, you can also set the addin to skip detachment of certain attachments with specific extensions. | |
COM add-in by Outlook MVP Ken Slovak that adds an Attachment Security Options page to the Tools, Options dialog in Outlook 2000 SP3 or higher to allow you to manage which file attachments are blocked. New version adds support for the .gadget extension for Outlook 2003 SP3 and Outlook 2007 SP1. It also adds detection for those SP levels. Shareware. Version 1.9.6 | |
"Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachment ..." If you get this message when attempting to access an Outlook email attachment you'll want to install Attachment Security for Outlook; a free program for unlocking attachments blocked by Outlook. Attachment Security for Microsoft Outlook is a free and easy to use software program that allows you to open attachments blocked by Microsoft Outlook e-mail security. | |
Topalt Attachment2File is a simple and easy to use tool for extracting attachments in Microsoft Outlook. It removes Outlook attachments (saves them to files) and replace them with links to the files. | |
Attachments to Folders gives Outlook the ability to extract or move attachments to a Microsoft Windows folder or another Outlook Folder. | |
Maintains mail history information in the original files on your system, so you don't need to keep the messages around just to know what you mailed to whom. Replaces attachments on sent messages with a link to the file on your hard drive. | |
AttachView allows OWA users to view documents as a secure web page without losing the ability to view Microsoft Word Track Changes revisions. Features include the ability to view revisions in Microsoft Word documents, view the revision date and author, color-coding differentiating revisions by author, at-a-glance, printable summary of revisions, hyperlinked index, Final and Markup document views. AttachView 8.5. Free trial is available. | |
Use CodeTwo Attach Unblocker to configure Microsoft Outlook to allow the openig of the attachments blocked by default (for example, .exe, .url, .reg). The program is an Outlook extension; its settings are available at the property sheet in the Outlook options, which ensures quick and convenient editing. Supports all versions of Outlook, including Outlook 2010 64-bit | |
Preview Microsoft Outlook email attachments without leaving Outlook, even if you do not have the creating software installed. Instantly access attached documents, spreadsheets, audio files and more than 100 file types. | |
Multifunction utility to send individual messages to a list generated either from a text file or from criteria on the Contacts folder, remove large file attachments, remove duplicate contacts and messages, and perform a few other little chores. | |
MaX Compression automatically and invisibly zips and unzips attachments in Outlook and Exchange. The benefits are: reducing demands for storage and bandwidth and improves productivity. There are four components. MC Client for Outlook which zips/unzips in real time. MC for OWA giving corresponding features in Outlook Web Access. MC Server which will zip/unzip existing attachments in an Exchange Information Store. MC Gateway which will zip/unzip as attachments pass through the SMTP gateway. When/what to zip is according to a rule set, created by the administrator. | |
Memba Velodoc Outlook Add-in lets you send large files directly from Outlook using a variety of file transfer server platforms including Velodoc Enterprise Edition, Velodoc XP Edition, FTP servers, UNC file shares, Microsoft Background Intelligent Transfer Service (BITS) servers and Amazon S3. | |
Addin makes it easier to work with attachments. Acquire images from a scanner and attach directly to the email and compress attachments. | |
The Missing Attachment PowerToy detects when an outbound e-mail message contains words which you typically use when including attachments and offers you the opportunity to revise the e-mail before Outlook sends it on its way. Free. Outlook 2007 only. | |
OutDisk for Outlook automatically uploads files to your FTP server, with no user knowledge of FTP required. OutDisk insulates users from the complexities of FTP. Once setup, the user selects files in a manner that's very similar to using OutDisk's paperclip to attach files to an email. Multiple users can share one FTP account. Each user can have a unique "working" directory. OutDisk will create a unique subdirectory for each email beneath the working directory. This adds security: by not co-mingling files, the recipient can only access the files that they are intended to access. | |
Outlook Attachment and Picture Extractor can extract and save attachments out from Outlook 2000/XP/2003/2007. Save Outlook attachments and pictures into a directory of your choice. Shrink your *.PST file by removing attachments from mails. Version 1.6 | |
UcMapi Outlook Attachment Explore is a Windows Explorer-like tool to help you browse and manage all attachments from your mailbox. With this tool, you can save, compress, remove or resolve one or multiple attachments easily. You need not open many messages to find a special attachment now. Right click on each attachment node, you can also save, compress or delete many attachments at the same time. | |
Free Outlook add-in for saving and extracting attachments, decreasing the size of your Outlook files. Beta. Version 0.9.2 | |
Delete all file attachments from an Outlook folder and subfolders in one operations. It can replace the link with the extracted attachment when sending or forwarding an email. Now supports exporting e-mails in various formats (also EML and MHT) or copy/move e-mails to another Outlook-folder with auto-creation of subfolders depending on the e-mail's data (sender, recipient...). | |
Save attachments in Outlook items to disk and replace them with .lnk shortcut files (which are blocked by the Outlook Email Security Update). | |
Move file attachments to either a system folder or another Outlook folder (perhaps in a personal folders .pst file). User can choose which types of files to move. | |
Attachment sharing made easy. An Outlook utility used for easily saving attachments into folders that the user has made accessible from within Outlook. Used for quick inhouse or global network file sharing, project work, backup and more. Works with mapped network drives. | |
Extract just pictures or all attachments from items in any Outlook and save them to a system folder of your choice. Can optionally move processed items to a different Outlook folder. | |
Outlook Tweaks is a free utility that enhances Outlook features, including the ability to resize dialog boxes, enable or disable warnings, and specify an attachment folder. | |
OutlookAttachView scans all messages stored in Outlook and displays a list of all attached files that it finds. You can select one or more attachments and save all of them into the desired folder, as well delete unwanted attachments. You can also save the list of attachments into xml/html/text/csv file. Version 1.05. | |
Reply all with Attachments allows users to reply to all with attachments. For Outlook 2007 and Outlook 2010, requires .Net Framework 3.0 and Visual Studio Tools for Office system 4.0 Beta 1. | |
SharePoint Attachments for Outlook changes the standard behavior when adding an attached file to an e-mail. Instead of adding the file to the e-mail, Outlook publishes the file to a website and adds a link at the cursor position in the e-mail. Supports multiple attachments. Works with Outlook 2000 and above and with any website which supports WebDav (IIS or FrontPage Extensions Web). | |
Use SugarSync for Outlook add-in to share a link to any file in your SugarSync account, instead attaching the file to an email. Convert any file stored on your computer to a SugarSync link before the email is sent; files not yet in SugarSync are uploaded in the background. Uploaded files are added to the Web Archive in a folder named Uploaded by Outlook. Track the number of downloads of the links you have sent. | |
Tool for automatically compressing message attachments into ZIP-format files. Available in both a standard edition and an enterprise edition with deployment kit and COM objects for scripting zip and unzip operations. | |
E-mail and message tracking service using a public key server, with direct Outlook integration via a free add-in. Also compresses and encrypts file attachments. | |
Outlook COM Add-in that automatically compresses mail attachments for all types of Outlook items, both outgoing messages and items in folders. Maintains an index of attachments, so you can find and open them easily, but does not index the full text of attached documents. Can be configured to automatically compress .exe and other file types blocked by the Outlook Email Security Update, so that recipients will get a .zip file they can open without difficulty. |
More Information
- Housekeeping and Message Management Tools for Outlook
- Housekeeping and Message Management Tools for Exchange Server
- How to Save Email Messages to the Windows File System
- Mail Tools for Outlook
- Compose Tools for Outlook
- VBA: Save Attachments to hard drive
- VBA: Check for subject before sending
- How to use VBA code samples (Outlook-tips)
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Last reviewed on Dec 8, 2011
Hello,
I am looking for an Outlook add-in that converts links to attachments. We have an internal policy that someone has to review an email before it is sent to a client. Therefore, the drafter writes the email, then includes any links to files on our network that will eventually be converted to attachments to the email, then sends the email to the reviewer. The reviewer then reviews the email, and opens up each link and makes appropriate edits, then closes the linked documents and sends the email back to the original drafter.
The drafter then wants to press a button to convert the links to attachments and then press Send.
Does anyone know of a product that does this?
Many thanks.
Keith