OL2000: How to Automatically Move Inbox Items of a Certain Age (249597)

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The Rules Wizard does not provide the ability to check the age of mail in your Inbox and then apply a rule to the mail. You can, however, create a macro that either runs every time you start Outlook, or when you click a toolbar button.

When you run the sample macro, it prompts you to select a folder to move the items to. Mail messages older than six days will be moved.

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To Create the Macro

1. On the Tools menu, point to Macro, and then click Visual Basic Editor.
2. In the Project window, expand the folders, and then double-click the ThisOutlookSession icon.
3. Type the following code into the code window.

   Sub MoveOldItems()
      Dim olns As Outlook.NameSpace
      Dim oConItems As Outlook.Items
      Dim iNumItems As Integer
      Dim dDate As Date
   
      Const Days = 6
   
      Set objNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
      Set oInboxItems = objNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Items
   
      Set objTargetFolder = Outlook.Session.PickFolder
      iNumItems = oInboxItems.Count
   
      For I = iNumItems To 1 Step -1
         Set objCurItem = oInboxItems.Item(I)
         If TypeName(objCurItem)= "MailItem" Then
            ' Move only mail messages
            dDate = objCurItem.ReceivedTime
            If DateDiff("d", dDate, Now) > Days Then
               objCurItem.Move objTargetFolder
            End If
         End If
      Next
   
      MsgBox "Finished moving items."
   
      Set objInboxItems = Nothing
      Set objTargetFolder = Nothing
      Set objNS = Nothing
   
   End Sub
   					

4. On the File menu, click Save VbaProject.OTM.
5. Quit the Visual Basic Editor.

Once you save the macro, you can assign it to a toolbar button.

For additional information about assigning a macro to a toolbar button, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base: When you run the macro the mouse pointer will not change to an hourglass; however, when all the items are checked and moved, the macro displays a message indicating that it is finished.

To Customize the Macro

• To have the macro run every time Outlook starts, change the name of the subroutine from MoveOldItems to Application_Startup.
• To change the number of days before an item is moved, change the number on the following line of code:

  Const Days = 6
  					

• The code uses the PickFolder method to display a window that lets you specify which folder the items should be moved to. You can change this line of code so that it will always move the items to a specific folder. There are various ways to refer to a folder programmatically.For additional information about how to refer to a folder using the Outlook object model, click the article number below to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

  208520 OL2000: Programming Examples for Referencing Items and Folders