Take a look at this page Setting E-mail Filters (I found that Outlook 2007 has the same options). Scroll down to the bottom of this link - it shows how to create a filter to get messages with attachments only.

Now, since it's possible to do from the interface, it should be possible to do programmatically as well. I believe you need to explore this option.

>that's what i'm after actually naomi - my problem is finding the code that will accomplish this.
>tnx
>k
>
>
>>>this is the start of outlook automation - is there a way to streamline the search so that only emails with attachments are inspected without having to use if clause:
>>>
>>>instead of
>>>

>>>For Each loMSG In loInBox.Items
>>>

>>>along these lines - excuse the syntax
>>>

>>>For Each loMSG loInBox.Items.loAttach  
>>>

>>>
>>>

>>>Local loOutlook   As Outlook.Application
>>>Local loNameSpace As Outlook.NameSpace
>>>Local loInBox     As Object
>>>Local loMSG      As Outlook.MailItem
>>>Local lnUnRead    As Integer
>>>Local loAttach,llAttach
>>>
>>>#Define olFolderInBox      6
>>>
>>>loOutlook   = Createobject('Outlook.Application') &&
>>>loNameSpace = loOutlook.GetNamespace("MAPI")
>>>loInBox     = loNameSpace.GetDefaultFolder(olFolderInBox)
>>>lnUnRead    = 0
>>>
>>>For Each loMSG In loInBox.Items
>>>

>>>
>>>thanks for any suggestions
>>>k
>>
>>May be (just an idea) there is a way to apply a filter first to see only messages with attachments. Try it manually first in Outlook - if it's possible, then you can do this programmatically too.