Outlook also supports "run a script" rules, allowing you to do some message processing as the messages arrive in the Inbox.
Rules Wizard
Rules Wizard processes both incoming and outgoing messages. See Rules Wizard and Assistants.
Tools in the Spotlight
File emails via eFiler Outlook toolbar into LAN and Cloud file systems (Google Drive, DropBox, OneDrive and WebDAV for Sharepoint, ODB, Box, DriveHQ etc.) in msg format with definable filenames to keep within Mailbox size limits and archive emails securely. File into predicted folders, drag and drop or by eRules to automate repetitive filing. Mobile filing for iPhone, Android, OWA by IMAP. Fast indexing search to find and use saved emails as if still in Outlook. Autosave for offsite backup. For all Outlook 2003, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016. Free 14 day trial. | |
File emails from Outlook into project or client folders automatically. Match email addresses, project numbers, client names or references to a folder name located anywhere on your network. Watch as the bulk of your emails are automatically filed (ZERO clicks!) and finish the task with manual filing for emails that do not fall within the scope of a project or client folder. Organize filed emails into relevant sub-folders within your mailbox and auto purge dated email over time. Supports Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013 & 2016 | |
ITIL helpdesk with automated ticketing and issue tracking for support team to log, analyze, collaborate, track and escalate support requests in an organized and structured way in Outlook. Can auto-process incoming support requests, auto-assign technicians, enforce service level, set due date and send automated notifications to cut the overhead of manual tasks significantly. Comes with integrated Knowledge Base, Asset Tracking, SLA, Report builders and OLAP Statistical tools. Support for Skype, SMS and Phone calls. Includes Web Access sites for technicians and end-users. Improves your efficiency to enable faster response time. |
Tools
Email Responder plug-in for Microsoft Outlook is an out-of-office assistant. Auto reply with away message templates; change your status and reply templates remotely. Change or schedule your free-busy status manually (Away, Out of Office, Vacation, Tentative, Custom) or use you Microsoft Outlook Calendar or Skype availability status. Auto response to selected Contacts or Distribution lists only. Enable Microsoft Outlook auto forward. Windows 10 and Outlook 2016 support. | |
Attachment management addin for 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. 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. You can set the addin to skip detachment of certain attachments. | |
Auto-Mate is an Outlook utility that allows you use define rules to move mail from your Inbox (or other folders) based on several criteria, including the age of the message. While Outlook rules only run as messages are downloaded or when you click Run Rules now, Auto-Mate rules run on a schedule, enabling you to apply rules to messages that have been in your Inbox for a given number of hours, days or weeks. Available in Standard or Pro Version. Outlook O365, Outlook 2019 as well as Outlook 2010, 2013, 2016, 32 and 64 bit editions. Version 12. | |
AutoReply Flow checks the original message for a Reply-To: address field. If one is found then an auto-reply message will be sent to this address. If an original message has no Reply-To: address field then an auto-reply message will be sent to the From: address of the original message. The subject line of the auto-reply message consists of the prefix ("Confirmation:", "Autoreply:" etc) and the Subject line of original message; the body of auto-reply message will include the original message text. | |
CI-Mail-Policy is a rule-based email action framework which allows you to control email flow and apply policies to messages which pass the Exchange Server. Centrally manage actions such as adding email signatures / disclaimers to emails sent from any devices (including smartphones), sending auto-responders, redirecting messages, rewriting sender's addresses, rejecting or silently deleting messages and many more. Actions can be filtered on Active Directory Groups, OUs and other AD attributes. Free & fully featured trial. | |
Available in two versions, a free personal edition and a more powerful professional version, ClearContext IMS is an add-in for Outlook that automatically prioritizes, organizes, and color-codes the e-mail in your inbox, placing the most important e-mails from the most important senders at the top of the inbox, ready to be dealt with immediately. Less important e-mails, such as newsletters and correspondence from low priority senders, are placed further down in the inbox and junk/spam e-mails are moved to the bottom. ClearContext IMS automates the e-mail filing process to help you keep your entire mailbox organized. Version 3.0 | |
Sperry Software Compliance Copies add-in for Microsoft Outlook will automatically add multiple BCC or CC recipients based on multiple different rules for different people. Unlike the Always BCC add-in, this new add-in also supports exceptions to the CC/BCCs conditions. This tool works with Outlook 2007/2010/2013. | |
Data Publisher add-in provides a means to bring your Outlook contents such as mails, appointments, tasks or contacts to SharePoint lists, where these can be shared with other users. This process can be performed manually, or automatically and is achieved without using any scripts or programming, with complete seamless experience to the users. In other words, Data Publisher extends your Microsoft Outlook to effectively act as a content provider for your enterprise SharePoint repository. It can be adapted to feed data to SharePoint lists for various purposes, such as for issue tracking, timesheets, projects or contact managements. | |
E-mail Follow-up reminds you to send a follow-up e-mail message if the reply has not been received in specified time. E-mail Follow-Up will watch for the messages and show you alert when the reply has not been received. Moreover, E-mail Follow-Up allows you to send follow up message using a predefined template to remind the recipient that the reply hasn't been received. Version 1. | |
eeminders gives you an uncluttered inbox that shows you what you need to work on, in the order that you want to work on them. Defer/snooze emails out of your inbox and have them magically appear back when you actually need them. Get email reminders to follow-up on important emails right in your inbox. Get reminders for non-email actions in your Inbox. Prioritize or schedule your emails in the order that you need to work on them and more... Supports Outlook 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 (32bit and 64bit). Free 30 day trial available | |
Email Parser is used to retrieve emails from Outlook PST files, Exchange servers or Office 365 accounts and extract the data contained in them. It supports exporting to an Excel file or Google Sheets. C# Scripting and PowerShell is also possible to integrate Email Parser with your existing tools. It has a wide range of examples available at the website and is free to try. | |
Exchange/Outlook add-on to create custom replies, forwards, signatures -- inserting any type of boilerplate text into your message. Templates are stored in Outlook or Exchange folders and can contain scripting elements (in VBScript or ET's own script language) to build replies that use information from the incoming message. Various extensions can handle such tasks as mailing list subscriptions. For a rotating quote, download the Rotating Text template. Has some issues with Outlook 2002 -- make sure you get the latest update, disable RTF templates, and don't try to use ET as a custom action in Rules Wizard. | |
EmptyJunk is a Power Automate flow that moves any email delivered to the Junk Email folder to the Inbox folder. Why? To bypass the junk email filtering. Many people prefer not to use the built-in spam filtering. As you know, Microsoft 365 (Office 365) has no setting to disable or enable the Junk email filter completely. This flow solves the problem tenant-wide. It periodically moves messages form the Junk Email folder to the Inbox folder in each user mailbox. | |
Anti-spam, disclaimers (with variables), archiving Internet mail, Internet mail usage reports. Includes a POP downloader and personalized server-based autoreplies that can include attachments and tracking numbers. Can archive to an ODBC database. Current version includes Overall improved anti-spam technology, an additional anti-spam engine called SpamRazer along with improved performance and a real-time dashboard. GFI MailEssentials now supports GFI Directory, enabling administrators to manage users just like they would with Active Directory when installed in a DMZ. | |
An incident ticket management groupware add-in that leverages Microsoft Outlook, Exchange and SharePoint. Provide an easy way for support staffs to collect ticket data from emails, assign technicians and problem areas, set due date and other custom metadata. And then use this information to generate trouble tickets in one of the administrator defined SharePoint lists, where customer issues can be tracked and collaborated with other technicians and stakeholders to seek early resolution. | |
Save, navigate, search and manage emails / documents in SharePoint all directly from Outlook. Integral to Macroview is the ability to drag and drag from anywhere to everywhere using the intuitive folder tree structure. The folder tree contains comprehensive right click menus which can be further extended by using configurable plug-ins and custom add-ins. Free 30 day evaluations. | |
OLAP Statistics tool for Outlook helps you gain insight into your folder items and make new discoveries. It analyzes Outlook data in multi-dimensional view in grids, charts and graphs and supports pivoting, drill down/slice and dice and filtering. You can run analysis tool on individual Outlook or public folders. Specify any field as the measure using functions such as sum, count, distinct count, maximum, minimum etc, and use this against other fields to generate statistics. Save and share reports as PDF, JPEG, HTML or PNG formats. | |
Easy-to-use email parser to automatically extract data from your emails. Send the data to Google Sheets, Microsoft Excel, or other applications. | |
File 90% of your emails at the click of a button. Manage your Inbox and Sent Items folders. Move emails out of the Inbox to the correct folder at the click of a button. QuickFile remembers the folders used for each person and presents a short customized list each time. Use the same list to Send&File in one step instead of having to go back to your Sent Items folder. Plus many more email management features such as one-click creation of task/appointments from emails, newsletter processing, deferred non-urgent emails and much more. | |
Timed Email Organizer is a brand new add-in which can replace or augment your Outlook rules. Unlike Outlook, this add-in will act on emails based on how old they are, supports ANDs, ORs, NOTs and wildcards in the conditions, and has a test mode so that you can see what the effect of a given rule would be if it were run. It will even import your current Outlook rules and automatically disable them for you. |
More Information
- Contact Management Tools -- Many of these utilities include autoresponders as one method of managing communications with contacts.
- Content Control Tools -- Includes tools to filter incoming and outgoing messages for content and attachments
- Message Extraction Tools -- To pull information automatically from incoming messages for use in databases, replies, etc.
- Pager Tools -- To automatically forward messages to a pager
- Notification Tools -- For enhanced alerts when new messages arrive
Chuck says
Hello Diane,
I am looking for an automated way to click a link in the body of an email if specific words are in the body of said email and is from a specific sender address.
Does such a solution/3rd party product exist?
Diane Poremsky says
I have a macro that can do it - you'd using the run a script rule option
Open Hyperlinks in an Outlook Email Message (slipstick.com)
Anna says
Hi Diane,
I am looking for a automated solution to send a reminder in x number of days on the emails addressed directly to us and is not replied to.
Diane Poremsky says
I have a macro - not sure if there is an addin - this macro forwards the message but that can easily be changed.
Forward Messages that were not Replied To (slipstick.com)
Adam Tijani says
Hello,
I am looking for a third party software or script for outlook that can take part of an incoming email ( ...say a transaction alert from a bank) and send said part to another email address. Any help would be appreciated.
Many Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
as long as there is a pattern, you can use regex to grab it and insert it into a new message. https://www.slipstick.com/developer/regex-parse-message-text/ shows how to get it out, you just need to insert it into a new message and send - https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/rules/send-a-new-message-when-a-message-arrives/
Mike says
Hi There,
I am looking for a third party piece of software that will manage auto replies even if the user isn't logged into that mailbox. There are plenty of options for replying when the user is logged in to the profile for the mailbox however other than using a vbscript I am unable find a solution. Anyone come across this issue before? any help would be greatly appreciated
Cheers guys
Diane Poremsky says
It would have to run server-side - otherwise something has to log in on a client to check mail. If you use Exchange, the out of office feature can use rules for autoreply and can use simple templates stored server side.
Omar Siddiqui says
Hi Diane,
I hope you can help me with my problem. So I'm in need of setting up an auto response. I know how to set the rules to respond back to the sender however, what I need is to send an auto response not to the sender of the email but the email hyperlink that comes with in the body of the message it's self. I'm in the hospitality industry so I get many emails from a company that sends me the email of the person wanting a room. I just don't understand how to set a rule to grab the hyperlink with in the message and respond only to that and not back to the sender. I hope I'm making sense, but any help would be appreciative
Ainsley says
Yes, I want to have the code to identify the pattern of the email subject first and then auto reply to the sender if the pattern of the email subject is not correct. For example, the subject email should either be 123-456789/CO01/ABCD or 987-654321/CO02/DEFG and thus the pattern should be:
""[0-9]{3}-[0-9]{6}/CO[0-9]{2}/[A-Z]{4}" <- Am i right?
So if the email subject is not following this pattern, then the code should send an auto reply to sender.
Diane Poremsky says
Ok... use the if statement to control whether to reply -
If code = "" Then Exit Sub <== replies if code in subject If not code = "" Then Exit Sub <== replies if the code is not in subjector use If code = "" Then ' set reply etc ' send reply end if
Ainsley says
Hi Diane,
Thank you so much! I got the code working for email that I selected in the Outlook window! However, what should I do such that it will run on every email in one of my inbox folder and perform the code without having me to select it 1 by 1?
Diane Poremsky says
If you want to run it on selected messages, you need to loop through the selection.
Sub ReplywithNote()
Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim olDocument As Word.Document
Dim olSelection As Word.Selection
Dim Session As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim currentExplorer As Explorer
Dim Selection As Selection
Dim item As MailItem
Set currentExplorer = Application.ActiveExplorer
Set Selection = currentExplorer.Selection
For Each item In Selection
ExtractText (item.Subject)
'rest of code
Next
end sub
See https://www.slipstick.com/developer/code-samples/working-items-folder-selected-items/ for a code smaple to run it on all items in a folder.
If you want it completely automatic, the sample I posted earlier works as a run a script rule, or you can use an itemadd macro to watch the folder and run when new messages arrive.
Ainsley says
Hi Diane,
The arrangement of numbers and letters will always be the same.Examples: 123-456789/CO1/ABCD or 456-654321/CO2/DEFG. I think the pattern to lookup for should be:
"[0-9]{3}-/[0-9]{5}/CO[0-9]{1}/[A-Z]{4}"
Am i right?
Diane Poremsky says
This matches your samples: "([0-9]{3}-[0-9]{6}/CO[0-9]/[A-Z]{4})"
Diane Poremsky says
using the macro at https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/rules/run-script-rule-reply-message/ as the base, this run a script macro and function look for the code and reply if the code is found.
Dim code As String
Sub ReplywithNote(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim message, Str As String
Dim olInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim olDocument As Word.Document
Dim olSelection As Word.Selection
ExtractText (Item.Subject)
If code = "" Then Exit Sub
Set myReply = Item.Reply
myReply.Display
Set olInspector = Application.ActiveInspector()
Set olDocument = olInspector.WordEditor
Set olSelection = olDocument.Application.Selection
olSelection.InsertBefore code
' uncomment to send
' myReply.Send
End Sub
Function ExtractText(Str As String) ' As String
Dim regEx As New RegExp
Dim NumMatches As MatchCollection
Dim M As Match
regEx.Pattern = "([0-9]{3}-[0-9]{6}/CO[0-9]/[A-Z]{4})"
Set NumMatches = regEx.Execute(Str)
If NumMatches.Count = 0 Then
ExtractText = ""
Else
Set M = NumMatches(0)
ExtractText = M.SubMatches(0)
End If
code = ExtractText
End Function
Ainsley says
Hi Diane,
I am trying to write a code to auto reply emails where its subject does not follow a certain type of pattern. For example, if email I received does not have its subject written in a pattern of XXXXX/ABCD/XX (where X represent numbers), I would like the code to auto reply the mail to sender to ask him to resend the email to the desired subject pattern. Could you please advise? Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need a run a script rule. Will /ABCD/ always be the same text? If so it'll be fairly easy to look for it using instr or mid function. If you need to look for the pattern you'll need to use regex or something to id the pattern.
I have a bunch of samples at https://www.slipstick.com/outlook/rules/outlooks-rules-and-alerts-run-a-script/
Ainsley says
Hi Diane,
Thank you for your kind reply. ABCD may not always be the same. I need a code to auto reply an email if its subject does not follow a certain patterns. Do you have a similar sample to this?
Will I be able to use regex to capture the email's subject pattern and then run a code to auto reply to the sender if the pattern does not follow a certain condition?
Thank you.
Diane Poremsky says
i have a reg function that might work - but the pattern it looks for needs to be unique - will it always be number/letters/number and will the number of numbers or letters vary?
William Mead says
Diane-
I need a way to automatically monitor an inbox on Outlook 2010 and based on the email address that was sent to or other subject/body data, will be able to route that email as a print job to different printer pools automatically. I don't care about attachments at this point, just the email body. I would want to set rules and route the job to one of several printer pools based on specified rules. Outlook 2010 has a very basic rule format that needs some enhancements.
Diane Poremsky says
You can easily do everything but the route to a printer part - Outlook uses the default printer. While it is possible to use a macro to reset the default printer so outlook uses it, I don't think i have any code samples for that.
Fayez says
Thanks Diane,
I will try that method and see
Best regards
Fayez says
Dear Diane
I need your expertise in this.
is there a way to set up a rule in outlook to automatically forward an email to my supervisor email if I did not get a reply from a specific staff in a specific time frame? In another word, automatic escalation of delayed reply?
Thanks
Diane Poremsky says
A rule, no. Other than using flags and tracking the replies yourself, Outlook doesn't offer a fully automated way to inform you that a reply was not received. I don't know if you could use Email Follow up utility and VBA to send a message to your supervisor using the method at Send email when reminder fires.
Keith R says
I am looking for a way to save a fax that is routed to Outlook from a DID fax number to a network folder. Any light you can shed would be greatly appreciated.
Diane Poremsky says
Can you use VBA? Is the fax an attachment or dropped in the folder as a file? See Save attachments using VBA for a macro, otherwise you need to use a utility. Most of the utilities on this page should work with network drives.
Tobias Strandberg says
Hi!
I'm trying to get invoices that we get on our email in pdf-format to be printed.
Do you have any suggustions of how I can get that to work?!
Diane Poremsky says
You'll need to use an addin or VBA. See Print Attachments for the macro and a link to the addins.
Justin Miller says
Thanks. Why did the '.Send End With' change to '.Display End With' ?
Diane Poremsky says
I do that when I test so I can apply it to all mail and see how it works without actually sending the mail. Change it to .Send to use.
Justin Miller says
Thanks, but I'm not sure where to put it in- I'm a graphics guy. Any extra help you can give is appreciated. Here is what I have:
Sub AutoReply(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim olkReply As Outlook.MailItem
Set olkReply = Item.Reply
With olkReply
'Change the subject on the next line as desired'
.Subject = "Your Subject Goes Here"
'Change the body as desired'
.HTMLBody = "Your reply text goes here." & olkReply.HTMLBody
.Send
End With
Set olkReply = Nothing
End Sub
Diane Poremsky says
Keep in mind that the original message is item, from item as outlookitem. olkReply is the message you are sending back. You need to use the item fields if you want to include them on the reply.
This macro will reply to the person + include any address in the To field of the template. It includes the original message, any text in the macro, plus the content of the template. Because it uses a template, it's not a true reply.
If you want to include the original subject, use (or add) item.subject - otherwise, this should have most of the based covered except for attaching the original. Remove the parts you don't need and you should be good to go....
Sub AutoReply(Item As Outlook.MailItem)
Dim olkReply As Outlook.MailItem
' Use this for a real reply
' Set olkReply = Item.Reply
' This replies with a template
Set olkReply = Application.CreateItemFromTemplate("C:\Users\me\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Templates\test.oft")
With olkReply
.To = Item.SenderEmailAddress & ";" & olkReply.To
.Subject = "Your Subject Goes Here"
.HTMLBody = "Your reply text goes here." & vbCrLf & "---- original body below ---" & vbCrLf & Item.HTMLBody & vbCrLf & "---- Template body below ---" & vbCrLf & olkReply.HTMLBody
.Display
End With
Set olkReply = Nothing
End Sub
Diane Poremsky says
BTW to send the original back as an attachment, you'd use
.Attachments.Add Item
it would go above .display in my code (use .display for testing, .send once the bugs are out)
Justin Miller says
Hi, I seem to want a simple thing but cannot find the answer, for Outlook and Exchange 2007 I need a function which auto replies with a template and the original message. When it uses the template, it never includes the original message. I found a script which changes the subject line, but need the original text in the reply at the bottom.
Diane Poremsky says
You should be able to add reply-item.body = original-item.body to the script you found, replacing reply-item and original-item with the object names used in the script.
However, the problem is that anything running in Outlook is only going to work when Outlook is running.
Alexander Sila says
Hi Diane,
How do I create a rule in Microsoft Exchange to Auto Reply to Emails after Business hours with a custom message?
Any help would be appreciated :)
Thanks,
Alexander
Diane Poremsky says
You would use Out of Office or use a Have the server reply rule. Either would need to be turned off and on daily.
Newer versions of outlook/exchange server let you set a time for the OOF to start and stop.
We have a VBA sample that can turn the rules off and on triggered by reminders. Outlook needs to be running for this to work, but once the rule change is made, it can be closed. Enable or disable an Outlook rule using reminders and VBA
Derek says
Hi Diane,
I've never written a line of VBA code, or any code for that matter.
I'm trying to figure out how to set a rule in outlook that when i receive an email (from anyone internal to my company) with a certain string of words, or characters in the subject line, it's routed to a personal folder (for future tracking purposes) that i have created; AND instantly replies automatically with a certain greeting in the body of the email PLUS an attachment such as a word document or PDF or image etc...
Also, i'm trying to do this at work and i'm not able to download and install any addons if they're not already installed.
How can i do this?
Thank you,
Derek
Diane Poremsky says
You can either use VBA or a rule with a run a script rule. See https://www.slipstick.com/outlook-developer/move-messages-cc-address/ for the basics. The links at the bottom of the page point to other run a scripts. If you can use a template for the reply and always use the same attachment, see Send a new message when a message arrives. Put the two scripts together and you're all set.
Kasper says
Hello Diane
Tricky question.
The scenario is as follows.
We have a fax which saves the incomming faxes in a specific folder on a pc we then need outlook to somehow automatically take those saved files, attach in a new mail and send it afterwards all automatically.
Is this possible by any add in or third party program or is this impossible?
Diane Poremsky says
I don't know of an 3rd party tool offhand but it should be doable with windows scripting. You need to watch for new faxes, then scripting will create a message and send it. Outlook will need to be open for the message to be sent, if you want to send through Outlook. I probably have script here (and if not, it's on the internet) to create the message using scripting - i don't have samples that watch for new items. If you don't need to send the message immediately, you could use task scheduler to run it. That would be the easiest. I'd probably have the script move the faxes to a new folder after sending, so you don't need to track the ones that were sent.
Georg Kastrup says
Hello Diane Poremsky.
Outlook 2007. Am strugling to automate certain mails to be placed in our network specific folder, so I can share specific mails with my friends without sending the mails to them.
Do you have a hint where to look for a solution?
Kind regards
Georg
Diane Poremsky says
This is a corporate network? Do you need to send the link to the files or will they know to look there for them? Is SharePoint an option?
Getting the messages saved to the network location is not all that difficult - https://www.slipstick.com/developer/saving-messages-to-the-hard-drive-using-vba/ and https://www.vboffice.net/en/developers/save-emails-to-file-system can get you pointed in the right direction.