Addin for Outlook: Portfolio - or other usage?

[Peter2]

I tried the "Portfolio" in Outlook 2019 and saw that's not what I need. I would like to use it in another way (the opposite way?) ...

I (and I'm sure that I'm not the only one ) often send mail with attachments, I have to archive it. There are some ways ..

a) Print the mail to PDF, pack it together with the attached data to a ZIP and name and save it. That's a lot of manual work, but fits to the ZIP-philosophy and needs not complex software for later usage.
That's what I do.

b) Save the file a a MSG. That's quick, but unhandy for later usage (file-format, searching, ..) and I never saw intensive usage of MSG-archives.

c) Print the mail to PDF and attach the attachment to PDF. That's a sophisticated way, but unusual - I newer saw someone who used attachements in PDF. How many percent of users know this function?

d) ... ???

So writing and thinking about it I think the way a) would be the best for a new feature. It could be not too complicated to implement - print the file, zip it with attachments, take the "subject" of the mail as filename for the ZIP.

What to you think about it?

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi, Peter2

what is it about the Outlook conversion yo do not like may I ask? It would seem to me to be exactly what you describe. What am I missing?

This is a sample email in Outlook with different attachment types, PDF, office etc:

This is the PDF result, a single PDF with the attachments as PDF attachments:

It even offers you the compression you'd get from your zip file approach:

Is thee something you'd like to see done differently here?

Kind regards,
Paul - Tracker Supp

[Peter2]

Hi Paul
I have to admit that I was a little bit short-thinking. The function you described is exactly my "way c)" - with all pros and cons. So the only think to do IMHO is the formatting - see here: viewtopic.php?t=40425

But nevertheless "way a)" with ZIP as container for PDF and attachment would create a widely know result.

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Hi, Peter2

so that way would be similar to what we do now, except that the end result is a single zip archive, with both the PDF of the email and attachments as separate files, not in the PDF, but in the archive?

It is an interesting suggestion, but given that we already do the compression on attachments in the PDF (method C) I would be surprised to get support for the other approaches. I believe we are also working on a way to convert attachments to PDF (when they are a format we can work with like Office docs and images) via Outlook, so that would be (d)



Kind regards,
Paul - Tracker Supp

[Peter2]

..so that way would be similar to what we do now, except that the end result is a single zip archive, with both the PDF of the email and attachments as separate files, not in the PDF, but in the archive?

It is an interesting suggestion ...

Yes, exactly.
As described above - ZIP with content in relation to PDF with attached content is
- more common for the standard user
- easier for admins with file-managers and search functions and ...

But we'll see ..

.. working on a way to convert attachments to PDF (when they are a format we can work with like Office docs and images) via Outlook...

Interesting for "Office People", but for data and drawings and binaries not helpful.

Thanks for replies!
Peter

[Paul - Tracker Supp]

Interesting for "Office People", but for data and drawings and binaries not helpful.

Agreed, but building support to natively open drawing files would mean including huge third party libraries, or a massive effort on our part to re-invent the wheel by creating our own rendering engine. Given the proprietary nature of a lot of CAD applications that would be a daunting task and is why PDF printers exist.

With the best will in the world, I doubt we'll ever see native handling of drawings and binaries.

[Peter2]

...With the best will in the world, I doubt we'll ever see native handling of drawings and binaries.

Absolutely correct. There is no way and no sense - this is what I wanted to say.

Thanks, have a fine day.

[Tracker Supp-Stefan]