- Finding the Best Hacks
- Hacking Your Way Out of Outlook
- Extending the Outlook Hack
- Refining the Code for Even Better Results
- Wrapping Up
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Like this article? We recommend
Hacking Your Way Out of Outlook
Contrary to popular belief, most iPod owners use Windows computers, not Macs. This is important to remember, as we'll be messing around with Outlook.
In an earlier InformIT article, I explained that you can read contact information on your iPod if the info is stored as a vCard. The structure of a vCard is not easy to write:
BEGIN:VCARD VERSION:2.1 N:Flash;Extending;; FN:Extending Flash EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:Extendflash@flashguru.co.uk REV:20040530T174351 UID:00000000190645CBE234E84DBBB4D5CBC448D3CC24F76800 END:VCARD
Not very pretty.
The problem arises when you have a lot of vCards. How can you possibly write the correct code for all those vCards? If you're running Outlook 2000, XP, or 2003, the answer comes from a built-in feature. Most Microsoft Office users don't know that you can program Office applications with Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). We'll create a simple application to export all your contacts from Outlook to your iPod.
TIP
This is a great introduction to the world of VB programming, as you don't need to add a lot of code to get something that you can really use.
Follow these steps:
Connect your iPod to your PC.
In My Computer, find your iPod (it should appear as an additional hard drive). Double-click the iPod icon and find the folder called Contacts. The path will be something like H:\Contacts. This is where you'll place your contact information.
Open Microsoft Outlook.
To access the Visual Basic Development environment, press Alt+F11. This action opens the VBA editor.
Choose, Insert, Module from the menu. Then add the following code:
Const XPortPath As String = "H:\Contacts\" 'target location on your iPod Const ext As String = ".vcf" 'file extension needed for iPod to read the vCard Sub ExportToVCard() Dim ns As NameSpace Dim fld As MAPIFolder Dim itm Dim itms As Items Set ns = Application.GetNamespace("MAPI") Set fld = ns.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderContacts) 'Outlook Contacts folder Set itms = fld.Items itms.Sort "[LastName]", False ' The following code is the loop that builds your code For Each itm In itms If TypeName(itm) = "ContactItem" Then itm.SaveAs XPortPath & itm.LastNameAndFirstName & ext, olVCard End If Next itm End SubPress F5 to run the script, which places a list of all your contacts—in vCard format—in the Contacts folder on your iPod.
And just that easy, you can read all of your Outlook contacts on your iPod.