Replacing text in a PowerShell object

Question

I'm restricted in a project, and have to use PowerShell to generate and send emails from Outlook.

param([string]$address, [string]$subject);
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application;
$Mail = $Outlook.CreateItemFromTemplate("D:\Users\mark\test.oft");
$Mail.To = "$address";
$Mail.Subject = "$subject";
$Mail.Send();

I'm using an oft template file, as I have to include a company logo embedded image.

However my problem is I need to change some of the body of the email, but retain the embedded graphics and formatting.

Is there a way in PowerShell of passing in a (for example) Reference ID parameter - and replacing in the body of the OFT file, #RefID# with "Reference ID" eg:

param([string]$address, [string]$subject, [string]$RefID);
$Outlook = New-Object -ComObject Outlook.Application;
$Mail = $Outlook.CreateItemFromTemplate("D:\Users\mark\test.oft");
****
$Mail.Body = $Mail.Body.Replace("#RefID#", $RefID)
****
$Mail.To = "$address";
$Mail.Subject = "$subject";
$Mail.Send();

the .Replace above seems to remove formatting, and replaces the logo, with "CID:...."

What it should look like:

What it looks like after using Replace:

How it looks after using Replace

Thanks for any help,

Mark

Did you try it? Did it work or were there any errors? I don't know anything about Outlook, but $Mail|Get-Member should give you a list of properties and methods, this might help. — Ocaso Protal
– Ocaso Protal, Commented May 11, 2015 at 7:57

Ansgar Wiechers · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-12 07:44:43Z

3

I'm not quite sure I understand what you're trying to do. Do you want to replace a literal string #RefID# in the body of the mail with the value of a variable $RefID? If so, that can be done, but you need to do it in the right place (the body of the mail):

$Mail.Body = $Mail.Body.Replace("#RefID#", $RefID)

In case of HTML e-mail you may need to modify the HTMLBody property instead of the Body property:

$Mail.HTMLBody = $Mail.HTMLBody.Replace("#RefID#", $RefID)

edited May 12, 2015 at 7:44

answered May 11, 2015 at 9:32

Ansgar Wiechers

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3 Comments

Mark Over a year ago

That's exactly what I'm trying to do - but using $Mail.Body.Replace as above, seems to lose the formatting of the email, and turns the company logo into a CID:xxxxxx reference. Is there a way to use Replace without that happening? Thank you Ansgar, Mark

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

@Mark You may need to modify HTMLBody instead of Body. Not much else I can tell you without sitting in front of your computer.

raTM Over a year ago

@AnsgarWiechers - Just. Thank You!!! No other words. I must have searched through 15-20 other StackOverflow threads before I stumbled across this perfect question and your perfect answer. Will re-share your answer where possible on other threads I come across on this topic.

Niels · Accepted Answer · 2015-05-11 07:56:35Z

3

A couple of options for you to try. They should both work to replace text in a file.

1)

$file = "D:\users\mark\test.oft"
(Get-Content $file).Replace("#RefID","$RefID") | Set-Content $file

2)

   (Get-Content $file) | 
    Foreach-Object {$_ -replace "#RefID","$RefID"}  | 
    Out-File $file

answered May 11, 2015 at 7:56

Niels

1945 bronze badges

2 Comments

Ansgar Wiechers Over a year ago

Outlook templates are binary files and should not be manipulated like this.

Mark Over a year ago

Hi Ansgar - do you have any other recommendations for achieving this? Kind regards, Mark

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