I am using OL'07, and want to send out a mail merge, in which I'll ask for
updated contact information from people (by indicating 'x' in certain blank
of reply for 'okay', or 'x' in another spot for 'update'). The initial mail
will of course indicate what information we have on file for each contact.
With this indication of whether or not the response is an approval or change
of information, is there a way to have Outlook parse out the information that
comes back? I am imagining something where I script for Oultook a way of
finding certain key terms (for example, 'First Name'), and then the space
after it, and before 'Last Name', I assume will be the value for 'First
Name'. In other words, a msg back would look like this:

Hello XYZ,

please...blah blah blah confirm:

First Name: Bill
Last Name: Schafer

blah blah blah
END

And OL would go and see that the response is from Bill Schafer, because it
knows that the spaces after 'First Name' and 'Last Name' are filled with
'Bill' and 'Schafer'. Bottom line, can I have message scraped for
information using any sort of algorithm that I put into OL? Really, all I
need is for the block of text starting from 'First Name' through 'Schafer'
copied to the clipboard, and then I could use it further. So whatever code
could accomplish this, would be assigned to some shortcut key, and on any
given message, that shortcut key would accomplish:

1) finding information block
2) copy to clipboard

And I would paste out of there into Excel or Word, where I could further
process the information.

Not sure if anyone has encountered or tackled a similar issue, but would be
grateful for feedback on approaches taken. Sorry for the lengthy explanation.
--
Boris

BorisS wrote:
> I am using OL'07, and want to send out a mail merge, in which I'll
> ask for updated contact information from people (by indicating 'x' in
> certain blank of reply for 'okay', or 'x' in another spot for
> 'update'). The initial mail will of course indicate what information
> we have on file for each contact. With this indication of whether or
> not the response is an approval or change of information, is there a
> way to have Outlook parse out the information that comes back? I am
> imagining something where I script for Oultook a way of finding
> certain key terms (for example, 'First Name'), and then the space
> after it, and before 'Last Name', I assume will be the value for
> 'First Name'. In other words, a msg back would look like this:
>
> Hello XYZ,
>
> please...blah blah blah confirm:
>
> First Name: Bill
> Last Name: Schafer
>
> blah blah blah
> END
>
> And OL would go and see that the response is from Bill Schafer,
> because it knows that the spaces after 'First Name' and 'Last Name'
> are filled with 'Bill' and 'Schafer'. Bottom line, can I have
> message scraped for information using any sort of algorithm that I
> put into OL? Really, all I need is for the block of text starting
> from 'First Name' through 'Schafer' copied to the clipboard, and then
> I could use it further. So whatever code could accomplish this,
> would be assigned to some shortcut key, and on any given message,
> that shortcut key would accomplish:
>
> 1) finding information block
> 2) copy to clipboard
>
> And I would paste out of there into Excel or Word, where I could
> further process the information.
>
> Not sure if anyone has encountered or tackled a similar issue, but
> would be grateful for feedback on approaches taken. Sorry for the
> lengthy explanation.

Sure, it can all be done if you are happy scripting Outlook in VBA. But you
can't really control the formatting/content of their reply, so a better
alternative might be to code a web page linked to your database so your
users could update their info online.

--
John Blessing

http://www.LbeHelpdesk.com - Help Desk software
http://www.room-booking-software.com - Schedule rooms & equipment
bookings http://www.lbetoolbox.com - De-Duplicates MS Outlook
http://www.repeatmail.com - schedule mass individual emails