Print an Outlook mail to file

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Tobias Schröer - 27 Sep 2006 16:59 GMT

Hi,

is there a possibility to print a mail from Outlook 2003 directly to file?
I' m trying to generate a pdf document from the mail via the FreePdf XP
printer (see: http://www.freepdfxp.de). In Word I can name a target file
which to print into, but with Outlook I am lost.

Any suggestions?

Tobi

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Michael Bauer [MVP - Outlook] - 28 Sep 2006 06:22 GMT

Am Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:59:57 +0200 schrieb Tobias Schröer:

Tobi, I don´t know FreePdf, I assume that you first need to save the e-mail
as a file and then pass that to FreePdf. You can save the e-mail by calling
its Save method, depending on the e-mails´s format you can save it as RTF,
TXT or HTML (and MSG, which is probably useless for FreePdf).

Signature

Viele Gruesse / Best regards
Michael Bauer - MVP Outlook
-- www.VBOffice.net --

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Tobi

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Michael Bednarek - 28 Sep 2006 08:40 GMT

>is there a possibility to print a mail from Outlook 2003 directly to file?
>I' m trying to generate a pdf document from the mail via the FreePdf XP
>printer (see: http://www.freepdfxp.de). In Word I can name a target file
>which to print into, but with Outlook I am lost.
>
>Any suggestions?

itmMailItem.PrintOut will print the current item to the current default
printer. However, Outlook doesn't provide any method to change the
current printer, although it could probably done with API calls. I
believe there are commercial Outlook add-ons which can do it.

The recommended method is to save the item, say as HTML, and then use
Microsoft Word via VBA to print it.

FreePDF also maintains a discussion list at
<http://www.cvmx.de/g-news/thread.php?group=life.d.software.freepdf>
which is also available as a newsgroup (life.d.software.freepdf) via
news://news.cvmx.de or news://news.life.de.

Good luck.

Signature

Michael Bednarek http://mbednarek.com/ "POST NO BILLS"

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Tobias Schröer - 28 Sep 2006 09:49 GMT

Hi,

first of all: thanks for your replies.

Michael Bednarek schrieb:

>>is there a possibility to print a mail from Outlook 2003 directly to file?
>>I' m trying to generate a pdf document from the mail via the FreePdf XP
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
> current printer, although it could probably done with API calls. I
> believe there are commercial Outlook add-ons which can do it.

I've found something like that, too. But there were some problems
mentioned concering Outlook and changeing of the default printer.
Unfortunately I've lost the URL :(

> The recommended method is to save the item, say as HTML, and then use
> Microsoft Word via VBA to print it.

That is what I have done. Save as HTML and print via Word.
I just would have been nice to do it all in Outlook.

> FreePDF also maintains a discussion list at
> <http://www.cvmx.de/g-news/thread.php?group=life.d.software.freepdf>
> which is also available as a newsgroup (life.d.software.freepdf) via
> news://news.cvmx.de or news://news.life.de.
>
> Good luck.

Tobi

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Michael Bednarek - 29 Sep 2006 04:15 GMT

>first of all: thanks for your replies.
>
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>>>
>>>Any suggestions?

[snip]

I've been thinking further on this subject: Outlook's limited printer
support (and the comparatively few complaints about it) indicates that
printing e-mail messages is not considered a useful activity, and I
agree with that (remember "paper-less office"?) Even Printing to PDF
doesn't make sense to me. What is it supposed to achieve?

PS: The above is not meant as snide or a put-down but as a genuine
attempt to discover the background for the requirement to print
e-mail messages to PDF.

Signature

Michael Bednarek http://mbednarek.com/ "POST NO BILLS"

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Tobias Schröer - 29 Sep 2006 08:25 GMT

Michael Bednarek schrieb:
[snip]

> I've been thinking further on this subject: Outlook's limited printer
> support (and the comparatively few complaints about it) indicates that
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> attempt to discover the background for the requirement to print
> e-mail messages to PDF.

That didn't came to my mind ;)

The PDF printing of the e-mails is a customer's requirement. The mails
should be archived to a CMS in pdf format. As the customer is from the
public government sector, and they are a little stingy on that matter.
And the customer rules ;)

Tobi

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