How to Rename the Attachments When Forwarding an Email in Outlook

Sometimes, when you forward an email that contains several attachments, you may want to rename the attachments directly when forwarding. This article will teach you how to accomplish it with Outlook VBA.

By default, Outlook doesn’t permit user to rename attachments when forwarding. Therefore, if you would like to rename them, the unique way is to first save the files to a local folder on your computer, then rename them and next re-attach them to the forwarding email. Obviously this method is considerably troublesome. Moreover, sometimes, these files may be inessential for you, so you really don’t want to save them to your computer. In this situation, you must long for a quicker method to let you rename the attached files directly in the forwarding emails. The following is an approach to realize it through Outlook VBA.

Rename the Attachments When Forwarding an Email

1. In the first place, launch Outlook and head to “Developer” tab.
2. Then locate and click on “Visual Basic” button.
3. After that, in the new popup window, open a new module by selecting “Insert” > “Module”.
4. Subsequently, you ought to copy and paste the following VBA codes into it.

Sub RenameAttachmentsWhenForwarding()
    Dim olItem As MailItem
    Dim Att As Attachment
    Dim Atts As Attachments
    Dim olForward As MailItem
    Dim FWAtt As Attachment
    Dim FWAtts As Attachments
    Dim FSO As Object
    Dim TempFPath As Object
    Dim FilePath As String
    Dim strName As String
    Dim strExten As String
    Dim strFile As String
 
    Set olItem = Application.ActiveExplorer.Selection.Item(1)
    Set Atts = olItem.Attachments
    Set olForward = olItem.Forward
    olForward.Display
 
    On Error Resume Next
 
    For Each Att In Atts
        'Get the path to Temporary Folder
        Set FSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
        Set TempFPath = FSO.GetSpecialFolder(2)
        FilePath = TempFPath.Path & "\"
 
        'Rename the attachments
        strName = InputBox("Enter a new name for" & vbCrLf & Att.FileName)
        'Change "4" based on the length of the attachment file extension
        strExten = Right(Att.FileName, 4)
        strFile = FilePath & strName & "." & strExten
 
        If strName <> "" Then
           'Save the attachments to the Temporary Folder
           Att.SaveAsFile (strFile)
 
           'Add the attachments saved in new names from the Temporary Folder
           olForward.Attachments.Add (strFile)
           Set FWAtts = olForward.Attachments
 
           'Remove the original attachments
           For Each FWAtt In FWAtts
               If InStr(FWAtt.FileName, Att.FileName) > 0 Then
                  FWAtt.Delete
               End If
           Next
        End If
    Next
End Sub

5. After that, you can exit the current “Visual Basic” window and proceed to add the new macro to the Quick Access Toolbar as usual.
6. Finally you can have a try.

• Firstly, select an email and then click the new macro button in the Quick Access Toolbar.
• Then a new forwarding email will open up. You can see the attached files in original names in the “Attached” line and also receive a dialog box that demands you to enter a new name for a specific attachment.
• After specifying new names for all the files and click “OK”, you will see that all the attached files are in the new names.
• Eventually you can compose the forwarding emails and hit “Send” button to send the message out.

Stay Alert to All Potential Threats to Your Outlook

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Author Introduction:

Shirley Zhang is a data recovery expert in DataNumen, Inc., which is the world leader in data recovery technologies, including repair damaged mdf and outlook repair software products. For more information visit www.datanumen.com