How do I convert a .msg outlook file to a .txt file with python 3.9?

Question

Please help a beginner python student out! I would really appreciate it.

I am trying to automatically filter emails from my inbox and save them as a text document in a specified folder. I can get the emails in my folder as .msg no problem, however, when I try to save it as a .txt file it either a) does not open up normally when I remove ‘olTXT’ or b) throws me the following error when I add ‘olTXT’:

line 19, in <module>
message.SaveAs(os.getcwd()+'//'+name, olTXT)
NameError: name 'olTXT' is not defined

I am using https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/vba/api/outlook.mailitem.saveas as my reference.

This is what I have so far:

import win32com.client
from win32com.client import Dispatch
import os
import re

outlook = Dispatch("Outlook.Application").GetNamespace("MAPI")
inbox = outlook.GetDefaultFolder(6)
messages = inbox.items
message = messages.GetFirst()

report_subject = "Tech Report"

for message in messages:
    if message.subject[0:11] == report_subject:
        name = str(message.subject)
        #to eliminate any special charecters in the name
        name = re.sub('[^A-Za-z0-9]+', '', name)+'.txt'
        #to save in the current working directory
        message.SaveAs(os.getcwd()+'//'+name, olTXT)

Asked By: jpyrate

||

Source

Answer 1

olTxt is 0 (olMsg is 3, etc.):

message.SaveAs(os.getcwd()+'//'+name, 0)

Answered By: Dmitry Streblechenko

Answer 2

Try adding this:

OlSaveAsType = {
    "olTXT": 0,
    "olRTF": 1,
    "olTemplate": 2,
    "olMSG": 3,
    "olDoc": 4,
    "olHTML": 5,
    "olVCard": 6,
    "olVCal": 7,
    "olICal": 8
}

# example
message.SaveAs(os.getcwd()+'//'+name, OlSaveAsType['olTXT'])

Reference: Outlook.OlSaveAsType.olMSG

The way you have it now you are referencing a variable olTXT before it is ever assigned which is why you are receiving the error.

Answered By: mr_mooo_cow

How do I convert a .msg outlook file to a .txt file with python 3.9?

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