One of the shortcomings of Outlook 2007 is that it does not allow you to automatically move deleted IMAP items to the Trash folder instead of marking them for deletion. This functionality is available in most other e-mail clients–and it’s even available in Outlook if you use Exchange–but it’s not available in Outlook if you use IMAP.

This limitation really bothers me, so I wrote this VBA macro to work-around the problem.

Limitations: To be fair, the macro is not perfect but it’s a huge improvement. Since there’s no simple way to hook the delete action itself, this macro copies all e-mails that have been marked for deletion to the Trash folder. Because of the way IMAP works, when Outlook moves an item to another folder, it actually copies the item and marks the original for deletion. This means this macro has the unintended side effect of putting an extra copy of messages that you moved in the Trash folder, as well as messages you deleted. (To be clear: It doesn’t delete the message you moved, it just puts a copy in the Trash folder.) For me, I’m willing to live with that. I’d rather have extra stuff I don’t need in my Trash folder than not have the important message I accidentally deleted.

To use this macro, copy and paste the code below into ThisOutlookSession. (Careful! Don’t overwrite other stuff that might already be in there.) You can access ThisOutlookSession from Tools > Macro > Visual Basic Editor. You must have Visual Basic for Applications installed; this is normally installed as part of Office.

Download the source code.

Private Sub myOlExp_BeforeFolderSwitch(ByVal NewFolder As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim myOlExp As Outlook.Explorer
Dim myOlFolder As Outlook.Folder

Set myOlExp = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer
Set myOlFolder = myOlExp.CurrentFolder
CleanseFolder myOlFolder
End Sub

Public Function SubFolderExists(myOlFolder As Outlook.Folder, ByVal strName As String)
On Error GoTo Err_SubFolderExists

Dim testFolder As Outlook.Folder
Set testFolder = myOlFolder.Folders(strName)

SubFolderExists = True
Exit Function
Err_SubFolderExists:
SubFolderExists = False
Exit Function
End Function

Public Sub CleanseFolder(myOlFolder As Outlook.Folder)
On Error GoTo Err_CleanseFolder

Dim myOlApp As New Outlook.Application
Dim myOlExp As Outlook.Explorer
Dim myOlNameSpace As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim rootOlFolder As Outlook.Folder
Dim trashOlFolder As Outlook.Folder
Dim folderType As Variant
Dim intCurrentMessage As Long
Dim currentMailItem As Outlook.MailItem
Dim oItems As Outlook.Items
Dim Filter As String

‘ verify the selected folder is a mail folder
Set myOlExp = myOlApp.ActiveExplorer
Set myOlNameSpace = myOlApp.GetNamespace(“MAPI”)
folderType = myOlFolder.DefaultItemType
If TypeName(myOlExp) = “Nothing” Or folderType <> 0 Then
Exit Sub
End If

‘ get the root folder
Set rootOlFolder = myOlFolder
Do Until rootOlFolder.Parent = myOlNameSpace
Set rootOlFolder = rootOlFolder.Parent
Loop

‘ if there is no trash folder, bail
If Not SubFolderExists(rootOlFolder, “Trash”) Then
Exit Sub
End If

‘ get the trash folder
Set trashOlFolder = rootOlFolder.Folders(“Trash”)

‘ if we’re in the trash folder already, bail
If myOlFolder = trashOlFolder Then
Exit Sub
End If

‘ DASL filter to test for IMAP deleted status
Filter = “@SQL=” & Chr(34) & “http://schemas.microsoft.com/mapi/id/{00062008-0000-0000-C000-000000000046}/85700003” & Chr(34) & ” = 1″
Set oItems = myOlFolder.Items.Restrict(Filter)
For intCurrentMessage = 1 To oItems.count
Set currentMailItem = oItems.Item(intCurrentMessage)

‘ move deleted items to trash folder
currentMailItem.Move trashOlFolder
Next

‘ purge the imap folder
myOlExp.CommandBars(“Menu Bar”).Controls(“Edit”).Controls(“Purge”).Controls(“Purge Marked Items in ” & Chr$(34) & myOlFolder.Name & Chr$(34)).Execute

Err_CleanseFolder:
End Sub

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS “AS IS” AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT OWNER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Tags: code snippet, delete items, imap, macro, ms office, outlook 2007, trash, trash folder, vba

This entry was posted on Friday, October 19th, 2007 at 12:00 am and is filed under Code Snippets, General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.