EZDetach | 5.5 User Guide









New! Try our latest product - QuickJump. It's like SimplyFile for file system folders.

Overview

EZDetach is a very powerful and flexible yet easy-to-use attachment management add-in for Microsoft Outlook. For a list of EZDetach features, see this page.

Installation

To install EZDetach, simply download and run the installer. The installer will guide you through the setup process. Shutdown Outlook before installing or uninstalling EZDetach.

EZDetach installer requires Administrator(or PowerUser) privileges. Once installed, EZDetach can be used by regular users without Administrator privileges.

Functionality

Getting Started

See EZDetach Quick Start Guide for a quick introduction. After that, read on for a more detailed discussion of EZDetach features.

Saving attachments from existing messages

To save attachments from messages already in your mailbox:

  1. Select the messages (you can select one or as many as you want)
  2. Invoke the "EZDetach: Save Attachments" command either by clicking on the Outlook toolbar button EZDetach Save Attachments Button or by selecting "Tools -> EZDetach -> Save Attachments" menu command.
  3. You will see the "EZDetach - Save Attachments" (screen shot) dialog where you can choose the folder to save attachments into as well as other options that affect how attachments are saved.
  4. Select desired options and click the "Save Now" button. Depending on the number of messages selected, the operation will take anywhere from a split-second to several minutes (for thousands of messages).

Silent Save: if you hold down the "Ctrl" key while pressing the "EZDetach: Save Attachments" Outlook toolbar button, EZDetach will silently save attachments without showing the options dialog. Previously selected options will be used in this case.
If you hold down the "Shift" key while pressing the "EZDetach: Save Attachments" Outlook toolbar button, EZDetach will automatically open the destination folder.

Saving attachments from all messages in a folder

You will notice that these steps are very similar to the ones described in the previous section.
To save attachments from all messages in a specific folder:

  1. Click on the folder in the folder tree view. Make sure the blue selection rectangle is displayed around the folder name. (You might have to click it twice).
  2. Invoke the "EZDetach: Save Attachments" command either by clicking on the Outlook toolbar button EZDetach Save Attachments Button or by selecting "Tools -> EZDetach -> Save Attachments" menu command.
  3. You will see the "EZDetach - Save Attachments" (screen shot) dialog where you can choose the folder to save attachments into as well as other options that affect how attachments are saved. If you would also like to save attachments from all messages in subfolders of the selected folder, check "Include Subfolders".
  4. Select desired options and click the "Save Now" button.

Save Attachments dialog

The Save Attachments dialog allows you to customize the way attachments are saved.

  • Detach Attachments From - if you selected messages, this space will say "Detach attachments from selected messages". If you select a folder, this space will show the folder name and the "Include Subfolders" checkbox.
  • Destination Folder - folder where the attachments will be saved. The drop-down box saves the last twenty five folders used.
    You can either type the folder name, or click "Browse" to choose a folder.
    Click "Open Folder" button to open the destination folder in File Explorer.
  • Options - this button toggles the dialog between advanced and basic views. The advanced view shows all possible options. The basic view shows a streamlined version of the dialog with only a few options.
  • File Naming - various options that affect how the saved files are called.
  • Subfolder Naming - EZDetach can create subfolders under the Destination Folder to group saved messages by sender name, sender domain, date, Outlook folder name or message subject.
  • Filter - This option allows you to save attachments which match a certain pattern. The Filter input field accepts space separated words. EZDetach will save only those attachments with file names containing one of the entered words. If the first character of the filter is "!", then EZDetach will save only those attachments, whose names do not match the filter.
    For example, if you enter ".doc .xls .ppt" (without the quotes), EZDetach will save only Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents. If you enter "! .gif .jpg", EZDetach will save only attachments, which are not gif or jpeg images.
  • Remove Attachments - delete attachments from the messages after saving.
  • Leave a link to the detached files - EZDetach will create a link to the saved and removed attachments. The links look very similar to the attachments, however the names are prefixed with "LinkTo_", and sizes are much smaller. (Compare message sizes before and after).
  • Execute - you can specify an application or script to run on the saved files. File name will be passed as the first and only command line parameter to the script. Make sure you specify complete path or add application to the system path.
  • Zip - Automatically zip the attachment after saving. (Only if the attachment is not already a zip file).
  • Unzip - Automatically unzip the attachment when saving. (Only if the attachment is a zip file).
  • More Options - This button displays an "Advanced Options" dialog.

We encourage you to try different options to find a combination that matches your needs.

Advanced Options Dialog

The Advanced Options dialog provides access to another set of powerful EZDetach controls.

  • Save Attachments from embedded messages - If checked, EZDetach will save embedded message attachments (.msg) and attachments from inside of attachments.
  • Prompt for custom file name - If checked, EZDetach will display a "Save As" dialog for every attachment, allowing you to provide a custom file name.
  • Add sender information to the saved files - If checked, EZDetach will set Title, Subject and Author file summary properties on detached files.
    You can view these properties by right-clicking on a file -> "Properties" -> "Summary" tab. You can also add these properties to the file explorer view by going to "View" -> "Choose Details..." menu and selecting "Subject" and/or "Author" in the "Details" check list.
    Note: This feature works on NTFS file systems only.
  • Show a progress dialog - If checked, EZDetach will display a progress dialog when saving attachments from a large number of messages.
  • Prompt to reattach links when forwarding a message - If checked, EZDetach will ask you whether you would like to automatically reattach detached files when forwarding a message with "LinkTo_" links created by EZDetach. If this option is not checked, EZDetach will not reattach detached links when forwarding a message.
  • Automatically open destination folder after saving attachments - If checked, EZDetach will open the destination folder in a new Windows Explorer window after saving attachments.
  • Enable link management - This option enables link management in EZDetach. It is required in order to support "Remove orphan detached files" (see below).
  • Remove orphan detached files - removed detached linked attachments which had messages linking to them permanently deleted. It is important to note that detached files are removed only when the corresponding messages are deleted permanently, not when they are moved to the deleted items folder. EZDetach will prompt you to confirm deletion of every file.
  • Clear Save Folder History - This button will clear the drop-down with "Save To" folder history in the main EZDetach dialog.

"Display Link Info" Command

If you use EZDetach to remove attachments from messages and leave links to ezdetached files in messages, you can use the Tools -> EZDetach -> Display Link Info menu command to see where the links point to.

Reattaching Files

In order to reattach attachments deleted using EZDetach, select the messages you would like to perform reattach on and choose Tools -> EZDetach -> Reattach Links menu command. If EZDetach is unable to find detached files during the operation (because the files have been moved after detaching) it will give you an option to point links to new files.

Moving Detached Files

If you move files after detaching them from messages, your detached links will become broken (they will point to the wrong location). To fix that, use the Tools -> EZDetach -> Batch-Update Links command. For example, if you ezdetached attachments into "C:\MyAttachments" and later renamed the folder "C:\MyNewAttachments", you can update all links by replacing "C:\MyAttachments" with "C:\MyNewAttachments".

Forwarding Messages with Detached Links

When you forward a message with ezdetached links, EZDetach will give you an option to automatically reattach attachments to the forwarded messages.

Automatic attachment saving from new messages

EZDetach implements an Outlook custom rule action that allows you to automatically save attachments from newly arrived messages matching a certain criteria.
To create a rule with EZDetach:

  1. Create a Rule Wizard rule that matches the messages from which you would like to save attachments.
  2. In the "What do you want to do with the message?" step check the "perform a custom action" option.
  3. Click on "a custom action" in the "Rule Description" window.
  4. Select "EZDetach" in the "Choose an action to be performed" drop-down box.
  5. Click on the "Change..." button.
  6. Select "Save Attachments" options.
    Note: These options are specific to the rule. Different rules can have different options.
  7. Click the "OK" button to save the rule options.
  8. Click the "OK" button in the "Select Custom Action" window.
  9. Finish creating the rule as usual.

Please refer to Outlook documentation for details on creating and working with rules.

Note: EZDetach keeps separate sets of options for each rule. Those options are different from the ones used when you run EZDetach manually. If you need to modify settings used for a particular rule, that can be done using Outlook's rule configuration wizard (click on the blue EZDetach link in the rule description).

Uninstallation

To uninstall EZDetach

  1. Launch Control Panel -> Add/Remove Programs.
  2. Select EZDetach (remove only).
  3. Click the "Change/Remove" ("Add/Remove") button.
  4. Follow the uninstaller instructions.


If you have questions that were not answered by this document, try our support page.

Thank you for using EZDetach.