Import Email

Scan one Outlook folder and pour its messages into the workbook: the message data goes to a sheet named Output, while attachments are downloaded to a folder on disk, filtered to the file types you choose.

On a project the mailbox is the record of everything that happened on site — instructions, shop drawings, test certificates, meeting minutes. This command turns a whole folder into a searchable Excel table with the attachments already collected.

Commands in this group

Command	What it does
Import Email	Scan an Outlook folder over a date range, write the messages to the Output sheet and download the attachments
Send Email	The reverse direction — compose and batch-send mail through Outlook from sheet data
Email Template	Open SendEmail.xlsx, the template with the standard column layout for email tasks
File List	List the downloaded attachments as a table in Excel

Workflow: building a monthly correspondence register

1. Open a separate workbook to receive the data — the command overwrites the Output sheet if one already exists.
2. Go to tab DVD Addin → group File and Print → menu Email Menu → click Import Email.
3. On the Outlook folder row, click 📁 to open Outlook's folder tree and pick the mailbox or subfolder to scan.
4. On the Attachment folder row, click 📁 to choose a local folder. The add-in creates an Attachments\<ddMMyyyy> subfolder inside it (named after the day you run the command) and saves the files there.
5. Under Date range, set From and To. Leaving both blank takes every message in the folder.
6. Under File types to extract, tick All extensions or select individual groups: .xls/.xlsx, .doc/.docx, .ppt/.pptx, .pdf, .txt, .zip/.rar, .msg, and Images (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .bmp).
7. Click Import. The status line beside the buttons shows progress.
8. When it finishes, the Output sheet holds 7 columns: No., Subject, Body, Sender Name, Received Time, Attachments count, and the output folder path. Turn on AutoFilter over the header row to filter by sender or by date.

Example

At the end of August you need a register of everything the site supervision consultant sent, plus every attached drawing and test certificate in one place. Outlook already has the folder Project ABC / Supervision.

Dialog field	Value
Outlook folder	Project ABC / Supervision
Attachment folder	D:\Project_ABC\Attachments\August
From → To	01/08 → 31/08
File types	.pdf ✔ · Images ✔

After the import, the Output sheet lists each message with its attachment count and save path, while D:\Project_ABC\Attachments\August\Attachments\<run date> already holds every attached PDF and site photo.

Tips and caveats

• Microsoft Outlook must be installed and signed in — the add-in reads through the running Outlook instance.
• Data always goes to a sheet named Output; anything already on that sheet is replaced, so run the import in a separate workbook.
• Leaving both date boxes empty means every message in the folder; on a mailbox with thousands of items, set a range to avoid a long wait.
• Only attachments matching the ticked types are saved; messages with no attachment are still listed on the sheet.
• The attachment subfolder is named after the day you run the command, not the message date — running twice on the same day into the same folder can overwrite same-named files.
• Writing the data into the sheet cannot be undone with Ctrl+Z.
• The command needs an active DVDAddin account (Standard or PRO); it is fully available during the trial period.

See also

• Send Email — the reverse direction: batch-send mail from Excel data.
• File Tools — list and bulk-rename the attachments you just downloaded.
• PDF & OCR — OCR scanned PDFs from the attachment set into text.
• Construction Diary — use the imported correspondence as source material for the site diary.
• Reference: Import Email — full description of every field in the dialog.