Gill, Simon, Lara, Raj many thanks , I have tried to send you the whole article but it was too large, the clock example is possible if possible because our Exchange Server 5.5 is not connected to the net no more, and the user has left, but read this bit and tell me; MAPI example code for getting folders and messages (c) 2002 Lucian Wischik. This code is free, and anyone can do with it whatever they like (except sell it or claim ownership). Bugfixes. 10 May 2003 - fixed the copy-constructor for mapi_TEntryid. Thanks to Greg from ideasmatter.org. This code is concerned with helping you traverse the folders in an MAPI message-store, and retrieve the message-content either both in plain text and in HTML. Typically the message-store will be the "Personal Folders" in Microsoft Outlook. But it also works with multiple profiles and multiple message-stores, and should also (untested) work with other Extended MAPI implementations. It also helps you traverse the folders in a standalone PST file. The code works (has been tested) with Outlook'97, with Outlook2000 (both Internet Mail Only mode and Corporate/Workgroup mode), and with outlookXP. The code consists of seven functions, written in C++ for Extended MAPI. I use it as a unit (mapi_utils.cpp, mapi_utils.h) added to my own project. This web page contains examples of how to use the seven functions plus extra example code, documentation for the functions, the header file and the source code for them. You should copy the code and paste it into your own project. The code uses STL, the standard template library. I wrote it under Borland C++Builder 5, but it should work on most compilers without too much fuss. --------------------------------- ALL-NEW Yahoo! Messenger - all new features - even more fun!