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.