I don't really understand the confusion--if the script is just another
action like the other outbound rule actions, wouldn't it just run
against the item in the same way all the other actions run against the
item?

In any case, I have tweaked together a solution that seems to work,
which basically involves avoided rules all together. All pattern
matching on the outgoing is done in VBA rather than with a rule. This
seems to be the only practical way to accomplish what I would think
would be a common scenario: moving outbound messages to folders by
pattern matching and marking them as "read" when they are moved to the
outbound folder. (If you just use the rule to move to an outbound
folder, they appear as unread in the outbound folders--and unless you
set up an event handler for each and every outbound folder, there does
not seem to be any systematic rules based way to mark them as read when
they arrive in those folders.)

But it's not just another action. The rules wizard does not support a "run a script" action for rules on outgoing messages, most likely for the reasons I described. Items that are in the process of being sent and those that have already been sent are not identical.

But back to your scenario. It sounds like the best solution would be to stick solely with VBA code that monitors the Send Items folder for new items and then moves them based on your criteria and marks the moved copies as read.

--
Sue Mosher, Outlook MVP
Author of Configuring Microsoft Outlook 2003
http://www.turtleflock.com/olconfig/index.htm
and Microsoft Outlook Programming - Jumpstart for
Administrators, Power Users, and Developers
http://www.outlookcode.com/jumpstart.aspx

wrote in message oups.com...
I don't really understand the confusion--if the script is just another
action like the other outbound rule actions, wouldn't it just run
against the item in the same way all the other actions run against the
item?

In any case, I have tweaked together a solution that seems to work,
which basically involves avoided rules all together. All pattern
matching on the outgoing is done in VBA rather than with a rule. This
seems to be the only practical way to accomplish what I would think
would be a common scenario: moving outbound messages to folders by
pattern matching and marking them as "read" when they are moved to the
outbound folder. (If you just use the rule to move to an outbound
folder, they appear as unread in the outbound folders--and unless you
set up an event handler for each and every outbound folder, there does
not seem to be any systematic rules based way to mark them as read when
they arrive in those folders.)

"Sue Mosher [MVP-Outlook]" wrote in message ...
Just guessing, it's to avoid confusion and problems related to whether the rule script would run against the item before the send is completed or after.

Code for outgoing items can be handled by the Application_ItemSend event handler or by monitoring the Sent Items folder for new items with the MAPIFolder.Items.ItemAdd event, depending on the application.

wrote in message oups.com...
I think the problem is that "run a script" is available as an action in
a rule to process incoming mail, but not outgoing mail. Is there some
reason for this difference?