Link contacts with emails

[DoraK]

could you please assist?

I would like to link my contacts with their emails and see the emails within my custom contact's form.

In this form i have put a nickname for each one contact, which matches with a custom field named: "PERSON" in each one email

 

[Diane Poremsky]

You'll need to do a search for that field and return the results... but outlook 2007 and older has a similar feature built in - it's called Activities. (Newer versions have the people pane which is not as nice.)

I don't seem to have a screenshot of Activities in outlook 2007 - the first one on this page is from 2010 - Outlook 2010 & Contact Activities

 

[DoraK]

You'll need to do a search for that field and return the results... but outlook 2007 and older has a similar feature built in - it's called Activities. (Newer versions have the people pane which is not as nice.)

I don't seem to have a screenshot of Activities in outlook 2007 - the first one on this page is from 2010 - Outlook 2010 & Contact Activities

....

Thank you for your reply but seems my request was not clear.

I do not want to use search or activities
- i want to keep the emails linked to the contact, permanently

ie. as if i was using a BCM.

 

[Diane Poremsky]

you want to add them to the contact as links or attachments?

 

[DoraK]

you want to add them to the contact as links or attachments?

as link

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Will you be doing this as messages arrive or running it manually on specific messages?

This macro shows how to do a lookup of contacts - Assign Categories to Messages using Contact Category - you'd use this method to find the contact and would need to change the code to link - this creates the message id:
strID = objMail.EntryID
strLink = "outlook:" & strID
strLinkText = objMail.Subject

then use word commands to create the hyperlink:

Set objDoc = objInsp.WordEditor
Set objWord = objDoc.Application
set objSel = objWord.Selection
objDoc.Hyperlinks.Add objSel.Range, strLink, "", "", strLinkText, ""
objSel.Range.InsertBefore "Link to message: "

 

[DoraK]

seems there is no solution for my request..
as per my previous :"I would like to link my contacts with their emails and see the emails within my custom contact's form.".

so, maybe you could assist on following:

I've tried to put ViewCtl into my custom contact form and I've changed the default folder to show my folder named: important, (root: outlook:\\my emails\important.)
- it works fine when I modify the form but when I publish it, shows the inbox contents !!

(

please see the attached print sceen)

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Do you want links to the mail or do you want a list, such as you'd get with instant search, Activities, or the People Pane? (The people pane would be easier and safer than the view control.)

 

[DoraK]

Do you want links to the mail or do you want a list, such as you'd get with instant search, Activities, or the People Pane? (The people pane would be easier and safer than the view control.)

.....................................

firstly Iwas trying to find a way to link specific emails PERMANTLY (not like search or activities, which takes much time to find the emails) using a common field (custom field: "PERSON"-into my emails folder -which is equal with the field "NickName" into my custom Contact form.

but i understood from your replies, that either my request was not clear or there is no way to do it.
(unless there is a way...)

so, as an alternative, I've tried to use the view control.

please note:

-I'm just a user- not a programmer
-I'm using OUTLOOK 2007 (without BCM)

 

[Diane Poremsky]

Using the view control is basically using Search or Activities and requires a filter - it is not "permanent". Because its a filtered view, it might be faster than Activities (which uses the old, slow search). The view control fell out of favor due to exploits and I'll need to look for my filter samples. I have a sample of using vba to apply a filtered view here - Apply Filtered Views Using a Macro - you'd use a similar filter in the code for the view control.

You can add a hyperlink (easier, because i have code samples) or object linking (I don't think i have code samples) or you can attach the original (usually not recommended unless you plan to move messages around, which can break the links). I recommend doing this as the message arrives going forward, run a macro once to do it on existing messages.

The difference between a hyperlink and object link: the hyperlink can use the item subject as the link text while embedded shows the envelope icon and the subject.

To do any of it, you're going to need to learn some vba. I don't have any full macros that do exactly this.

the closest i have is a macro that creates a hyperlink to a contact in a task. it could easily be changed to create a hyperlink to email in a contact, but you'll need to add the filter (the link i posted earlier has an example).

Sub GetContactLink()
    Dim objContact As Outlook.ContactItem
    Dim objTask As Outlook.TaskItem
    Dim strID As String
    Dim strLink, strLinkText As String

Set objContact = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
    strID = objContact.EntryID
    strLink = "outlook:" & strID
    strLinkText = objContact.FullName

Set objTask = Application.CreateItem(olTaskItem)
    Set objInsp = objTask.GetInspector
    Set objDoc = objInsp.WordEditor
    Set objSel = objDoc.Windows(1).Selection

With objTask
    objDoc.Hyperlinks.Add objSel.Range, strLink, "", "", strLinkText, ""
    objSel.Range.InsertBefore "Link to "
           
    .Display

End With

End Sub

FWIW, i'd probably work with the email address fields unless there is some reason why you need to use a custom field. It will save you the hassle of adding the field.

 

[DoraK]

thank you but i do not wish to use hyperlinks or object link.

let's concetrate on "view control" and how to make it to show (after publishing my custom contact form) instead of inbox, my folder named: important, (root: outlook:\\my emails\important.)

view name: **Β-*300---PERSON

 

[DoraK]

missing your reply please !