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General discussion

Microsoft Outlook problem with replying to emails

May 17, 2005 10:50AM PDT

I have version 2002 (10.4712 .4219) SP-2.

When I receive an email with an attachment, and reply to it by hitting ''Reply'', typing my reply message, and then hitting ''Send'', both the received email and attachment disappears from my Inbox.

When I then go to the ''Sent'' box, the text of both my email reply and the incoming email message are there, but the incoming attachment is not. In other words, the incoming attachment has totally disappeared from Outlook.

How can I retain the received attachment without first ''saving'' it before I reply to or forward the received email and attachment?

L Rogovin

Discussion is locked

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Re: disappearing message
May 18, 2005 5:12PM PDT

A reply doesn't contain the attachment. After all, it wouldn't make sense to return the attachment to the person who sent it to you, because he already has it. That's quite OK.

The original message should not disappear. In fact, it might be that it still is there, but not shown. See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/287577/ for a possible solution.
If you are sure the message totally disappears from the Inbox, move it to any other folder before replying. You can even add a rule to do this automatically for every message you receive.

Kees

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Outlook
Oct 20, 2006 8:33AM PDT

I have read about this issue in a variety of forums. I want to express my thoughts on this in the hope that Microsoft developers see and understand this.

While the sender does have the attachment, emails are not only sent from one person to another. So, if I reply to a group among whose members some have not yet opened the original email they can use the attachment with my comments without returning to the original email.

In addition to this, when large groups are receiving emails and reviewing the attachments (and especially when multiple versions of the attachments are circulating) it is very helpful to have the original attachment to refer to even if everyone has the it in another email or saved in a folder.

Further, we use attachments to approve minor expenses and the email has to have the attachment for the approval process to work.

I think the basic issue is that the user should be able to control this as we could in Outlook 98. Many Microsoft programs inexplicably take control out of our hands (numbering in Word, e.g. Users then require deep knowledge of the applications and their options to work productively. Developers need to allow users the maximum ability to control their applications, especially when the feature was available in a previous iteration of the application.

Thanks for allowing me to vent!!

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Outlook reply with attachments
May 29, 2007 11:17AM PDT

Proud Papa, Did you or anyone else find a solution to this problem?

Peter

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DO you use AVG?
May 29, 2007 11:19AM PDT

There is a known head banging issue with this.

That attachment is a mirage in that case. Tell more?

Bob

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That's a good point.
May 30, 2007 12:58AM PDT

What I do in such cases: use forward instead of reply. Copy/paste the to, copy/paste the cc, change FW: in the subject line to RE:

Frankly speaking, however, attachments inside organisations are clumsy, especially in cases like this. It's better to hyperlink to the original instead of filling all those inboxes with all those copies of the attachements. That's why the MS developers are developing Sharepoint Server, I think.

Having a well organized documentation system for project groups on a standard Windows server is quite workable also. Sending hyperlinks to such files is made much easier by a quite simple shell add-on called clipmate (free download). It lets you copy the full UNC name (like //server2/data/newproject/documentation/design/functions.doc) to the clipboard from Explorer so you can paste it into any mail. It's hardly more work than adding it as an attachment.

Kees

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Samll Business:Microsoft Outlook problem with replying
Jul 25, 2007 4:06PM PDT

I have just experienced this problem - and advice given by microsoft in support article kb287577 is not good. believe it or not - I have just done a sort of my inbox as follows: The inbox shows - From - Subject & Received. RIGHT CLICK the mouse over the word RECEIVED then select sort Descending and all the emails in your inbox will be sorted into date order and you should then find all the emails that have seemed to disappear.
Hope this helps anyone - I now have all my "missing" emails in the INBOX. They never really disappeared - but now we need to know why this happens especially as you probably - like me - do not have anything special in Customise Views.
Basil Wein
blwein@dircon.co.uk

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Solution for the problem
Mar 17, 2009 6:28AM PDT

Hi Guys,
I found the solution to the problem. It's little tedious. What you have to do is create the form.
Here is the link on how to create the form
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011142241033.aspx

Choose Tools->Forms->Design a Form

Choose "Message" on the Design Form window.

It opens the "Message" Template. Go to the last tab which is "Action" or "(Action)"

Double click the "reply" row, you would be presented with "Form Action Properties" window.
Select "Attach Original Message" in "When Responding"

Save the template.
When creating a new message open this template. When the receiver will click "reply" all the attachments would be intact in the message.

cheers

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Its partially correct, but doesn't accomplish the same goal
Apr 29, 2009 10:37AM PDT

The goal is to click a button that will inclide the recipient(s) in the To/cc fields like the Reply & Reply to All button, but also including the attachment like the Forward button. Essentially merging specific features of both functions to create a Reply with Attachment action button.

Doing what you suggested here will attach the actual email itself as an attachment, which will naturally include the attachment. So its an attachment within an attachment which makes it potentially more confusing for others, and also more cumbersome to deal with.

This is what we know:
1 - Clicking 'Forward' on an email containing an attachment will result in a new email being created, with blank TO, CC & BCC fields, a 'FW' prepended to the subject, the original email body contents and the attachment.
2 - So, clearly Outlook is capable of passing an/the attachment/s on to a new email. I checked the form actions (Open Email > Developer > Design This Form > (Actions) tab) and found 4 actions: Reply, Reply to All, Forward & Reply to Folder.
3 - Comparing the 'Forward', 'Reply' & 'Reply to All' actions reveal that the 'Address form like a:' values are 'Forward', 'Reply', 'Reply to All' respectively.
4 - This, to me, suggests there may be a [VB(?)] Function or some other form that it refers to when performing said '(Action)'. These are the forms or funtions I'm trying to view in an attempt to modify it in such a way that will result in the creation of a new option under the 'Address form like a:' field that can be used for any new '(Actions)' on the forms.
5 - After that it's just a matter of creating a button that a user can click to perform said action.

The Plan is to essentially to look at the existing 'Reply' and 'Reply to All' forms, make a copy of the existing 'Forward' form, save it under a new name, make some minor edits to it & incorporate it in such a way that will make it available for all current and new emails. My aim is to basically tweak the Forward action slightly, so that it includes the original recipients in the To & CC fields (just like 'Reply' & 'Reply to All') & pre-pends 'RE' instead of 'FW' in the subject line. (Essentially merging the actions of both buttons) That's it! I then need to create a new button on the quick access toolbar or the ribbon, if possible.

I did this earlier tonight, and somehow came up with the following Macro VB code that should or could potentially accomplish this task. (read: it works on my machine so give it a go)
------SNIP------
Public Sub ReplyWithAttach()
'Make declarations
Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
Dim myInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim myReplyItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim myAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim myReplyAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim fso
Dim TempFolder As String
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
TempFolder = fso.GetSpecialFolder(2)
Set myOlApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set myInspector = myOlApp.ActiveInspector

'Create variable to store files names 10 max if you need more then 10, change the value below
Dim filenames(10) As String

If Not TypeName(myInspector) = "Nothing" Then
If TypeName(myInspector.CurrentItem) = "MailItem" Then
Set myItem = myInspector.CurrentItem
Set myAttachments = myItem.Attachments
If myAttachments.Count > 0 Then
For Count = 1 To myAttachments.Count
myAttachments.Item(Count).SaveAsFile "c:\" & myAttachments.Item(Count).DisplayName
filenames(Count) = myAttachments.Item(Count).DisplayName
Next

Set myItem = myInspector.CurrentItem
Set myReplyItem = myItem.Reply
Set myReplyAttachments = myReplyItem.Attachments

For Count = 1 To myAttachments.Count
myReplyAttachments.Add "c:\" & filenames(Count), olByValue, 1, "" ' this is questionable
myReplyItem.Display
fso.DeleteFile "c:\" & filenames(Count)
Next

End If
Else
MsgBox "The item is of the wrong type."
End If
End If
End Sub
------SNIP------

I'm not looking to be spoon-fed and am more than willing to read up on how to do this, but have not had much luck constructing my Google search in such a way that will result in locating the documentation I need.

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Wrong forum RE: Reply with Attachment
Apr 29, 2009 10:39AM PDT

I was on the wrong tab, but the information is still potentially useful!

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Reply with Attachment (Solved!)
Apr 30, 2009 1:26AM PDT

(Yea, it was originally an accidental post, but I'm adding this solution for completeness!)
For those who ever need to do this, I offer two solutions, although the latter is from Sue Mosher and is probably better since she authored Microsoft Outlook 2007 Programming.

Somehow, last night I came came up with the following that should accomplish this task. It works on my machine & one other so give it a go!
------SNIP------

Public Sub ReplyWithAttach()
'Make declarations
Dim myOlApp As Outlook.Application
Dim myInspector As Outlook.Inspector
Dim myItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim myReplyItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim myAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim myReplyAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim fso
Dim TempFolder As String
Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
TempFolder = fso.GetSpecialFolder(2)
Set myOlApp = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set myInspector = myOlApp.ActiveInspector

'Create variable to store files names 10 max if you need more then 10, change the value below
Dim filenames(10) As String

If Not TypeName(myInspector) = "Nothing" Then
If TypeName(myInspector.CurrentItem) = "MailItem" Then
Set myItem = myInspector.CurrentItem
Set myAttachments = myItem.Attachments
If myAttachments.Count > 0 Then
For Count = 1 To myAttachments.Count
myAttachments.Item(Count).SaveAsFile "c:\" & myAttachments.Item(Count).DisplayName
filenames(Count) = myAttachments.Item(Count).DisplayName
Next

Set myItem = myInspector.CurrentItem
Set myReplyItem = myItem.Reply
Set myReplyAttachments = myReplyItem.Attachments

For Count = 1 To myAttachments.Count
myReplyAttachments.Add "c:\" & filenames(Count), olByValue, 1, ""
' Its questionable whether the double quotes above are needed.
myReplyItem.Display
fso.DeleteFile "c:\" & filenames(Count)
Next

End If
Else
MsgBox "The item is of the wrong type."
End If
End If
End Sub

------SNIP------

It seems a bit clumsy but it works (Hey, I'm a VBA/VBScript, WMI, ADSI work in progress.)
I tried substituting myItem.Reply with myItem.ReplyAll, however it didn't seem to behave correctly; in fact it didn't work at all. I'd be interesting in hearing why if anyone can figure it out.

Sue's code, and comments, can be found at http://outlookcode.com/article.aspx?id=49

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http://www.outlookcode.com/codedetail.aspx?id=1228
Apr 30, 2009 1:45AM PDT