Volume 26 Issue 9

Issue Date: April 8, 2021 « Previous Issue | Next Issue »

The following articles were included in our Exchange Messaging Outlook (EMO) newsletter published on April 8, 2021.

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Today's Highlights:

Importing Calendar and Contacts into an IMAP account
Exporting IMAP folders
Filter messages containing spam or offensive words

Importing Calendar and Contacts into an IMAP account

I've had to fix the calendar and contacts for several clients after they imported the items from a pst into an IMAP account. While Outlook uses the "this computer only" folders, the import creates new folders named just Calendar and Contacts. New appointments and contacts went into the "this computer only" folders and the contacts weren't showing the address book.

While the fix is easy: set the calendar folder to list view, select all and use the Move to folder command to move everything to the "on my computer" version of the folder, you can avoid that step by importing directly into the default folder.

Select the calendar folder then begin the import process, choosing the option to import into the current folder. Repeat the step for contacts: select the contacts folder before beginning the import then import into the current folder.

Or, skip the import steps and open the pst in the profile, using File > Open & Export > Open Outlook Data File then move the calendar and contacts (and tasks, if you use them) to the correct folder.

Exporting IMAP folders

While we're on the subject of importing to IMAP accounts, it's a good time to talk about exporting from an IMAP account.

If you export an IMAP data file to a pst file, the folders will appear empty, while the folder size will show there is something in the folder.

The contents are in the folder, but Outlook exports the folders as IMAP folders and uses the default IMAP view: Hide Deleted IMAP items. Outlook thinks the messages were deleted and the view hides the messages.

If you change the folder view, you'll see the folder contents. While changing the view on every folder is easy enough using the " Apply Current View to Other Mail Folders..." command, you can use a macro to change the folder type from IMAP to mail.

Calendar and Contacts folders may appear to be mail folders and the items in the folders display as mail. This can't be fixed by changing the view, you'll either need to make a new folder of the proper type and move the items into it or use MFCMAPI to change the folder type.

The steps to use MFCMAPI to change the folder type and a macro to automate it can be found in this article:
Fix the Outlook Folder Type after Exporting an IMAP Account (slipstick.com)

Filter messages containing spam or offensive words

I had several users ask me how to create a filter to delete messages that contain spam or offensive words, even though the junk email filter put the messages in the Junk Email folder. The spam made it harder to look for messages that are not spam but were moved to the Junk Email folder

Obviously, you can create rules that filter on words, but it only works on messages left in the Inbox and too many words can cause the rule to fail.

You can use a macro, either in the form of a run a script rule on incoming mail or an ItemAdd macro to watch a specific folder. Which is better? It depends on several factors, including how much mail you receive at a time. If you receive a lot of mail, a rule may be able to filter which messages the macro runs on (such as except if the sender is in my address book), while the ItemAdd macro checks every message. But the ItemAdd macro can run on specific folders – like the Junk Email folder.

To use the macro, you add your list of words or phrases to the array. The macro checks the message subject and body for the words.

Others asked how to use the blocked sender list to delete messages sent by the blocked addresses. I'm still working on a macro for that. You could put the blocked addresses into the arrays in the macro, but reading the blocked list would be better and automatic.

Get the code at Filter messages containing spam or offensive words (slipstick.com)