Solved: Prevent me from deleting a folder

[mvidas]

Hi Everyone,

My Inbox has a few subfolders that I use rules to divy the messages into the appropriate folder. There is one folder that I Scott probably 99% of the messages in. When I Scott a message I use shift-delete so it doesn't even go into Scotted items, however sometimes the focus is on the foldername and not the message itself, so when I press shift-delete/enter (something my fingers are well trained for) I end up completely pulling a Scott on the entire subfolder.

I can't seem to find a setting to prevent this, so is there a vba solution (or anything) that will help me do this?

I was thinking there might be an event triggered when something is deleted. When the item being Scotted is a folder then something like this happens:
[vba]If MsgBox("You are Scotting a folder, are you sure you really want to do this?", _
vbOKCancel + vbDefaultButton2, "Don't be an idiot") = vbCancel Then
'code to prevent the folder from the wrath of Scott
End If[/vba]

I'm a newbie at outlook code, so I don't know what the events are or anything. Any help would be great, as I'm sick of Scotting the folder and having to recreate it (and losing the 1% of messages I want when it happens).

Thanks
Matt

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Matt,

I think this is going to extremly hard!

Outlook has an eventhandler: FolderRemove() (look it up)

The problem however is that it has no cancelable event attached to it. And that's a real shame...

But you never no.

The strange thing is that I think this problem must be version specific. Which version are you using.

I'm using 2003 and if I press SHIFT+DELETE I still get a confirmation dialog if I really want to delete this folder?

[mdmackillop]

How about:
[VBA] If Folder.Deleted = True then
With PayPal
.Mvidas > Vbax ($10, Donate)
End With
End If
[/VBA]

[mvidas]

Joost,

I will definately take a look when I get home (which is where I need this) and report back later to let you know what I found if anything. I'm using ol2000, and it does ask me to confirm it. But since I am so used to pressing Shift-Delete then Enter to remove the message completely, the same sequence of keys removes the folders. I could just be less of an idiot and actually make sure each time that I'm not on a folder, but I've tried that and since I can be an idiot, it doesn't always work

Malcolm,
I definately should donate something here! I remember when I wanted to paypal you a pint after all your help with one of my projects a few months back (outlook to excel maybe? or maybe my text files procedure? who knows). We'll see how it goes on my next payday
[vba]

If Folder.Deleted = True Then
With mvidas
.Idiot = True 'Again
.PayPal.Donate(Recipient:=vbax, Amount:=10)
End With
End If

[/vba]

[mdmackillop]

Thanks for the correction. I think you should submit it to the KB.

[Ken Puls]

Wow! I never would have expected Matt to raise this kind of an issue. If something told me there was a thread asking how to prevent them from deleting somthing, my money would for sure have been on Scott!

An interesting question though...

[Steiner]

Unfortunately my Outlook seems to be too old, as I don't have a FolderRemove-event. But should it not be possible to simply copy the folder to a save location (maybe your "personal Recycle bin") and then let Outlook delete what it wants to delete.

Daniel

[mvidas]

Daniel,
From the help file it looks like folderremove was added in outlook 2000, if that helps.

Ken,
I don't quite know Scotts track record for deleting things other than a few threads on here, but I've probably deleted this &*%$! folder (and one other) 5 or 6 times!

Joost,
I got the FolderRemove to work, but unfortunately it fires after the folder has been deleted. I don't use the outlook bar otherwise I could use BeforeGroupRemove, maybe a future version will include BeforeFolderRemove

I'm just going to have to keep it the same way, but I'll move the messages I want into my normal inbox so when I delete the folder again I won't go crazy over what I just lost.

Thanks everyone!
Matt

[Ken Puls]

ROTFL!

Nice Edits, Matt!

VBAX Dictionary:
Scott (v) To delete by accident

[MOS MASTER]

Joost,
But since I am so used to pressing Shift-Delete then Enter to remove the message completely, the same sequence of keys removes the folders.

Haha..yepz missed this one... (That will delete it for me aswell)

@Malcolm..ROTFL!...that was great!

[MOS MASTER]

Unfortunately my Outlook seems to be too old, as I don't have a FolderRemove-event. But should it not be possible to simply copy the folder to a save location (maybe your "personal Recycle bin") and then let Outlook delete what it wants to delete.

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Are you using Outlook 97?

Office adds more events on the way up so yes the lower versions don't have some events... (But this one isn't much good to begin with because it lacks a Cancel...)

[MOS MASTER]

Daniel,
From the help file it looks like folderremove was added in outlook 2000, if that helps.

Hi Matt...answered to this as well I should learn to scroll down first!

Joost,
I got the FolderRemove to work, but unfortunately it fires after the folder has been deleted. I don't use the outlook bar otherwise I could use BeforeGroupRemove, maybe a future version will include BeforeFolderRemove

Hi Matt,

You're welcome!

Could you post the exact code your using and can you explain in which objects you've put them in the VBE? (Class/module,etc..)

I like to have a go with it and experiment a bit more...

Enjoy!

[mvidas]

Sure thing, Joost. I didn't use the class object method (I only saw one example of it, and the outcome seemed to be the same as what I encountered). I just have the following in my ThisOutlookSession
[vba]Dim WithEvents myFolders As Folders

Private Sub Application_Startup()
Initialize_EventHandler
End Sub

Sub Initialize_EventHandler()
Dim myNS As NameSpace
Set myNS = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set myFolders = myNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInbox).Folders
End Sub

Private Sub myFolders_FolderRemove()
Stop 'folderremove event triggered
End Sub[/vba]

Experiment all you want! I'd love to see this work, and as this is probably only my 4th foray into the outlook model I don't think I know enough to get it to work.
Thanks! If you can't get it to work, no harm done. Thanks again!!
Matt

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Matt,

Ah ok you're using the example code thats fine.

Building something now so I'll play with it later.

[Steiner]

Hi Joost,
I use Outlook 2000. And of course it has that event, I was just too stupid to find it, because I simply looked at the application object.
I just did not think the Folder object has an event FolderRemove . Matt's sample code showed me that mistake...

Daniel

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Joost,
I use Outlook 2000. And of course it has that event, I was just too stupid to find it, because I simply looked at the application object.
I just did not think the Folder object has an event FolderRemove . Matt's sample code showed me that mistake...

Daniel

Hi Daniel,

Yes I know what you mean. Outlook has quite a lot off special events so you can overlook some of them! (Been there...done that)

@Matt,

I've been working on a sollution trying to sendkeys (ESC) it out of there but it's not working!

Told you it would be hard...but still thinking about it.

[Tommy]

When the myFolders_FolderRemove fires the folder is already deleted. So I am taking the approach of copying the mail items from the deleted folder to the "new" folder. Not a real solution but may be a handy little work around until a better one comes up.

[MOS MASTER]

Hi Tommy,

Yepz it's a workaround but I'm sure there has to be a way to get this done with a simpler method...(don't know how yet ...)

[Tommy]

I had it and it disapeared. I got it to work 3 times and BOOM no wanna play no more. I guess I cleaned up more than I should have. I am using the MoveTo method. Be back later with more details.

[MOS MASTER]

I had it and it disapeared. I got it to work 3 times and BOOM no wanna play no more. I guess I cleaned up more than I should have. I am using the MoveTo method. Be back later with more details.

Sounds you're having a ball over there!

Perhaps wise to export your *pst file at this moment!