Outlook Attachments Counter, Don't Send Mails Without Attachments Anymore

Introduction

In new Microsoft Outlook versions, you can check an option that monitors the usage of certain words and phrases like "Attached" and it warns you when you used those words / phrases and the attachments counter is 0 when you press the Send button.

I guess that this will work well in English and in other main languages out there, but in case you speak something like Catalan... well, it simply does not work.

In order to avoid that situation, I've written a small VBA code snippet that you can freely use and configure to adapt to your needs.

I've noticed images are counted as attachments, therefore you'll have to take that into account to put the limit to your counter. As an example, if I send a mail without attachments from my gmail account (with a simple text signature), the attachments counter returns 0. On the other hand, if I send a mail from my work account (that has one image in the signature), the attachments counter returns 1.

Using the Code

1. To access the VBA editor in Outlook 365, press ALT+F11.
2. Select your project, Microsoft Outlook Object and then ThisOutlookSession in the tree at the VBA editor window.
3. Then copy this code into the editor:
   VBScript

   Private Sub Application_ItemSend(ByVal Item As Object, Cancel As Boolean)
     Dim mi As MailItem
     Dim minimumAttachments As Integer
   
     If (TypeName(Item) = "MailItem") Then
       Set mi = Item
   
       If (InStr(1, UCase(mi.SendUsingAccount), UCase("YourWorkDomain.com"))) Then
           minimumAttachments = 1
       Else
           minimumAttachments = 0
       End If
       
       If (InStr(1, UCase(mi.Body), UCase("attach"), vbTextCompare) > 0) Or _
          (InStr(1, UCase(mi.Subject), UCase("attach"), vbTextCompare) > 0) Then
          
         If mi.Attachments.Count <= minimumAttachments Then
           answer = MsgBox("No attachments found, send it anyway?", vbYesNo)
           If answer = vbNo Then Cancel = True
         End If
       End If
     End If
   End Sub

That sub (procedure) is being called when you send an email, then, before the mail is sent, it checks if the text "Attach" appears in the body or the subject of your email and if it appears there, it counts the attachments it has and compares them to the minimum amount there should be to consider there are attachments in your mail.

If there are no attachments, it asks you if you want to send the mail or not. Then in case you decide not to send the mail, the send operation gets aborted and you can make any modification in your email.

Important Detail

In recent Office versions, macros are disabled unless you digitally sign them.

Check "how to use selfcert.exe" in Google, there you'll find information about creating a self certificate to digitally sign your macros.

History

• 28^th February, 2022: Initial version