Combine /a and /m command line switches

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RichardB - 13 Feb 2008 11:53 GMT

Hello,

I'm having trouble combining the /a and /m switches when starting outlook by
command line since installing Outlook 2003 SP3;

What I did before SP3:
outlook.exe /m someone_at_example.com c:\file.txt
This brought up a new message window, pre-addressed and with the specified
attachment

I know that this was undocumented, but at least it worked...

Since SP3 this doesn't work anymore, so I referred to
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP010031101033.aspx

So I tried:
outlook.exe /c ipm.note /m someone_at_example.com
Brings up a new pre-addressed message window

outlook.exe /c ipm.note /a "c:\file.txt"
Brings up a new message windows with the specified file attached

outlook.exe /c ipm.note /m someone_at_example.com /a "c:\file.txt"
Brings up an error message saying "Invalid command line argument specified"

Could anybody please help me to send a pre-addressed mail with an attachment
with Outlook 2003 SP3?

Many thanks in advance,

Richard

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RichardB - 25 Feb 2008 05:43 GMT

Anybody who has any input?

> Hello,
>
[quoted text clipped - 27 lines]
>
> Richard

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Brian Tillman - 25 Feb 2008 16:10 GMT

> I'm having trouble combining the /a and /m switches when starting
> outlook by command line since installing Outlook 2003 SP3;

I do not believe it's possible to combine those command switches. In fact,
Help for the command switches says this about the /m switch: "Only works in
conjunction with the /c command-line parameter."

Signature

Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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RichardB - 25 Feb 2008 20:33 GMT

Brian,

thanks for your reply. The question in this case is: Does "only" mean
"...with no other parameters than /c..." or "...not without the /c
parameter..."

In fact it doesn't work, but i can't think of a good reason for this
behaviour.

Richard

> > I'm having trouble combining the /a and /m switches when starting
> > outlook by command line since installing Outlook 2003 SP3;
>
> I do not believe it's possible to combine those command switches. In fact,
> Help for the command switches says this about the /m switch: "Only works in
> conjunction with the /c command-line parameter."

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Brian Tillman - 26 Feb 2008 18:58 GMT

> thanks for your reply. The question in this case is: Does "only" mean
> "...with no other parameters than /c..." or "...not without the /c
> parameter..."

It means, to me, "it works only when you also specify /c"

> In fact it doesn't work, but i can't think of a good reason for this
> behaviour.

You'd have to ask Microsoft.

Signature

Brian Tillman [MVP-Outlook]

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Chris - 19 Mar 2008 15:17 GMT

> I know that this was undocumented, but at least it worked...

It's documented. I've been using /a and /m together for over 10 years with Outlook 97, 98, 2000, 2002, XP, 2003 and 2007 to create e-mail from an old ERP system.

A recent MS update for has broken this (our ERP system is unchanged). It's not just Outlook 2003 SP3 because the problem also appeared in our other versions of Outlook.

Any resolution or work-araound? I guess I'll load up a test system and apply patches one at a time to see which one creates this problem, then see if it can be uninstalled (without undue risk to security or stability).

Chris

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