How can I say no to a version named “Thelonious”?

My rating: 2 of 5 stars
This book is far longer than it needed to be. After page 100, I completely skipped all the 18th century France scenes. The book is filled with just the kinds of characters you’d expect to meet in an MFA creative writing assignment: Marlow, the psychoanalyst who (of course) fails to psychoanalyze himself; Marlow’s father, the judge-not-lest-ye-be-judged milquetoast of a retired cleric who (of course) diagnoses his son’s problems; the tortured artist Robert Oliver.

Robert meets the two main female characters in obnoxious meetcute scenes that would have been cut out of any self-respecting Hollywood B-movie slated for a Thanskgiving release. The female characters are strong, and the ending is satisfying. But the descriptions of Robert’s relationships go on far too long. In a development that ultimately leads nowhere, we even meet Robert’s wife’s mother (of course, this is all to show the difficulties of life in the sandwich generation.)

View all my reviews >>

How about a little recursive Excel macro that will do the job for you? Before Office 2007 came along, I had a macro that used Application.FileSearch to do the job. But that is apparently no longer supported. You need the FileSystemObject.

So create an Excel workbook with macros enabled (i.e., ending with .xslm)

Open your VB window, go to Tools > References… and check the Microsoft Scripting Runtime option. If you don’t see it listed, click Browse and navigate to C:\Windows\System32\scrrun.dll

Create a macro and paste the following code


Sub myFileSearch()
Dim objFSO As Scripting.FileSystemObject
'Dim myFSO As FileSearch
'Dim myFSO As String
Dim foundFile As String
Dim myofficeobject As Object
Dim myfilename As String
Dim objFolder As Folder
Dim objFile As File
Dim GetLookIn As String

Set objFSO = New FileSystemObject
GetLookIn = BrowseFolder("Where do you want to search?")
If GetLookIn = "" Then
Exit Sub
End If

Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(GetLookIn)

For Each objFile In objFolder.Files

myfilename = objFile.Path
ActiveCell.Value = myfilename
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = FileDateTime(myfilename)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = FileLen(myfilename)
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -2).Select
Next objFile

ShowSubFolders objFolder

End Sub

Public Function ShowSubFolders(ByVal Folder As Variant)
Set objFSO = New FileSystemObject
For Each Subfolder In Folder.SubFolders
Set objFolder = objFSO.GetFolder(Subfolder.Path)
Set colFiles = objFolder.Files
For Each objFile In colFiles
myfilename = objFile.Path
ActiveCell.Value = myfilename
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = FileDateTime(myfilename)
ActiveCell.Offset(0, 1).Select
ActiveCell.Value = FileLen(myfilename)
ActiveCell.Offset(1, -2).Select
Next
If Len(Subfolder) Then
ShowSubFolders Subfolder
End If
Next

End Function

Here’s the code for the GUI

'************** Code Start **************
'This code was originally written by Terry Kreft.
'It is not to be altered or distributed,
'except as part of an application.
'You are free to use it in any application,
'provided the copyright notice is left unchanged.
'
'Code courtesy of
'Terry Kreft

Private Type BROWSEINFO
hOwner As Long
pidlRoot As Long
pszDisplayName As String
lpszTitle As String
ulFlags As Long
lpfn As Long
lParam As Long
iImage As Long
End Type

Private Declare Function SHGetPathFromIDList Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
"SHGetPathFromIDListA" (ByVal pidl As Long, _
ByVal pszPath As String) As Long

Private Declare Function SHBrowseForFolder Lib "shell32.dll" Alias _
"SHBrowseForFolderA" (lpBrowseInfo As BROWSEINFO) _
As Long

Private Const BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS = &H1
Public Function BrowseFolder(szDialogTitle As String) As String
Dim X As Long, bi As BROWSEINFO, dwIList As Long
Dim szPath As String, wPos As Integer

With bi
.hOwner = hWndAccessApp
.lpszTitle = szDialogTitle
.ulFlags = BIF_RETURNONLYFSDIRS
End With

dwIList = SHBrowseForFolder(bi)
szPath = Space$(512)
X = SHGetPathFromIDList(ByVal dwIList, ByVal szPath)

If X Then
wPos = InStr(szPath, Chr(0))
BrowseFolder = Left$(szPath, wPos - 1)
Else
BrowseFolder = vbNullString
End If
End Function
'*********** Code End *****************

Updated for Excel 2007. In your macro window, under Tools>References, make sure you check the Microsoft Excel 12 Object Library and Microsoft Access 12 Object Library.


Sub exportjournal()
''
''Created 4/4/08
''Source: Programming Microsoft Outlook 2000 by Ken Slovak
''Had to add references to Microsoft Excel 11 and Access (for the Nz function)
'' also see http://msdn.microsoft.com/archive/default.asp?url=/archive/en-us/dnaro97ta/html/sampauto.asp
''Works!
Const strNone As String = "No journal items."
Const strTitle As String = "Export"
Dim appOL As Outlook.Application
Dim nmsNS As Outlook.NameSpace
Dim fldFolder As Outlook.MAPIFolder
Dim itmItems As Outlook.Items
Dim itmJournal As Outlook.JournalItem
Dim appExcel As Excel.Application
Dim wbkBook As Excel.Workbook
Dim wrkSheet As Excel.Worksheet
Dim rngRange As Excel.Range
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim intReturn As Integer
Dim intRow As Integer
Dim strRange As String
Dim strWorkBook As String
Dim strUNI As String
Dim begindate As Date
'Set a reference to the default Journal folder
Set appOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
Set nmsNS = appOL.GetNamespace("MAPI")
Set fldFolder = nmsNS.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderJournal)
Set itmItems = fldFolder.Items
lngCount = itmItems.Count
If lngCount = 0 Then
intReturn = MsgBox(strNone, , strTitle)
Exit Sub
End If
'Get date from user
begindate = InputBox("Enter Begin Date")
EndDate = InputBox("Enter End Date")
strWorkBook = "C:\foldername\JournalExport.xls"
'Initialize Excel items
Set appExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
appExcel.Workbooks.Open (strWorkBook)
'Activate Sheet 1
Set wrkSheet = appExcel.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets(1)
wrkSheet.Activate
appExcel.Visible = True
'Set Sheet column widths
wrkSheet.Columns("A").ColumnWidth = 20
wrkSheet.Columns("B").ColumnWidth = 20
wrkSheet.Columns("C").ColumnWidth = 16
wrkSheet.Columns("D").ColumnWidth = 20
wrkSheet.Columns("E").ColumnWidth = 50
'The example in the book
'has a bunch of formatting code that I am ignoring
'Start adding data at Column A, Row 1
intRow = 1
strUNI = "A"
For Each itmJournal In itmItems
With itmJournal
'adjust date as needed
'If itmJournal.LastModificationTime > begindate And itmJournal.LastModificationTime < EndDate Then If itmJournal.Start > begindate And itmJournal.Start < EndDate Then
'Subject
strRange = strUNI & CStr(intRow)
Set rngRange = wrkSheet.Range(strRange)
rngRange.Value = nz(.Subject)
'start time
strUNI = Chr(Asc(strUNI) + 1)
strRange = strUNI & CStr(intRow)
Set rngRange = wrkSheet.Range(strRange)
rngRange.Value = nz(.Start)
'Duration
strUNI = Chr(Asc(strUNI) + 1)
strRange = strUNI & CStr(intRow)
Set rngRange = wrkSheet.Range(strRange)
rngRange.Value = nz(.Duration)
'Categories
strUNI = Chr(Asc(strUNI) + 1)
strRange = strUNI & CStr(intRow)
Set rngRange = wrkSheet.Range(strRange)
rngRange.Value = nz(.Categories)
'Notes = body(?)
strUNI = Chr(Asc(strUNI) + 1)
strRange = strUNI & CStr(intRow)
Set rngRange = wrkSheet.Range(strRange)
rngRange.Value = nz(.Body)
'Back to column A, next row
strUNI = "A"
intRow = intRow + 1
End If
End With
Next itmJournal
Exit Sub
ExportJournal_Error:
MsgBox "Error #" & Err.Number & Err.Description
End Sub


But right off the gate they’re asking for my Social Security number?!

Not a chance.