Make Outlook prompt for saving an e-mail just after sending

Have you considered setting up a Outlook message rule?

You can configure a rule that triggers when a message is sent. So set up a rule that picks up just those you want (or use the except bit of the rule to exclude certain emails instead), get it to copy those to your Sent Items folder and then you can disable automatic saving of sent items so only those handled by the rule are saved.

For a safer option, set the rule up to add a "DELETE ME" flag on those you wish to remove - then you can keep automatic sent-item-sending enabled (potentially safer, you won't accidentally not save something you need!) and can easily delete them all manually by just sorting the sent mail folder by flag.


There is no way to do that with "out of the box" Outlook configuration. However, there is a way of writing some VBA to achieve something similar to what Lotus Notes does: http://www.outlookcode.com/d/code/setsavefolder.htm You should definitely pay attention to the notes in the article that describe when this functionality still wouldn't apply.


The thread How can Outlook prompt to "send and save to folder" provides some additional solutions, listed below.

First one is the three VBA samples from E-Mail: Determine a folder for sent items:

Sample #1 shows how to store all sent mails in a subfolder of the Inbox, called 'Ablage' (filing) - except the ones which shall be deleted after they are sent.

Sample #2 is slightly different: For every outgoing e-mail it displays a dialog to choose the folder from.

Sample #3 checks the name of the sending account and stores the email according to that in different, pre-determined subfolders of the Inbox. This sample works only from Outlook 2007 on!

If you don't mind a commercial solution, there is Sent Items Organizer Add-In for Microsoft Outlook
($29.95, use BH93RF24 to maybe get a discount) :

  • Puts a "Send And File" button into your compose email window for simple
    filing
  • Organizes your email by keeping related emails together
  • Saves the sent items based on which account you are sending from, or...
  • ...who you're sending the email to, or...
  • ...keywords in the email

Another option is MessageSave ($49.95) :

Prompt to save sent messages - If checked, MessageSave will prompt you whether you would like to file sent messages immediately upon sending them.