H1B Visa Processing in India :: Must know Facts and FAQs!!

Who are Eligible?

On a broader scale, any Indian citizen who has 16 years of continuous education from a recognized (not all institution are recognized by US consulates) educational institute will qualify for H1b if he has relevant adequate experience of at least 2-3 Years with a registered IT Development company and he who doesn`t have any legal problem are eligible. Please note eligibility doesn’t guarantee VISA, it is to the discretion of the consulate officer who are not to grant a VISA.

The sought after technologies are

• Java, J2EE Technologies with UML/XML, SQL/Oracle
• VB.Net, ASP.Net, C#, .Net
• C,C++
• Data Base Administrators (DBA’s)
• Testing Tools
• Data Base Developers
• SAP, Oracle Apps
• SAS, Cognos, Informatica and other ETL Tools
• VLSI
• Vignette
• Plumtree
• MS Visual Studio
• Cold Fusion
• Symantec Visual Café
• IBM Visual Age
• JMS/JBuilder

How is the Case picked Up?
U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has no outlined strategy to pick up the candidates while processing their H1b Petitions. Cases are picked up on a random basis. To increase your chances of getting picked up apply from different companies.

What if the case is not picked up?
Even before you send the packet/candidature to USCIS, every cases has to be evaluated by an attorney and also have his/her education evaluation done. In spite of all this efforts, it is quite likely (70:30) that few of the candidates are not even picked up for processing.

What is the quota allotted to Indians for US H1b`s?
This keeps varying years after year and can increase/decrease as per the market situation prevailing in USA. For now India has around 65,000 VISA that can be granted to qualified Indian citizens.

What is the latest date for H1b petition submittal?
All H1b`s should reach the USCIS centers by 1st April every year, However there is lot of paper work and evaluation to be done on each case before they can be sent to USCIS. Bottom line sooner the better. But the last date would be 1st April.

If filed for H1b when can I go to USA?
Filing of H1b petition doesn`t guarantee your VISA.. once the H1b petition is filed, the USCIS processes the cases and will release the 797 form (Which is the basic document to be possessed by any one to appear for a H1b interview with their respective regional US Consulate... for south India it is Chennai) If granted a VISA at the consulate you can fly to USA anytime.

What if my VISA is rejected?
As said before, granting of H1b VISAS are purely to the discretion of the consulate officer who will conclude after looking in to your educational/experience certificates and their own quantifying parameters.

Hope this info helped in clearing some of the doubts related to H1b Visa processing.

India in the eyes of a Pakistani Journalist

This is written by a Pakistani journalist called Dr Farrukh Saleem on 12/9/2007. He is an Islamabad-based freelance columnist.

It was an eye-opener and made a wonderful read. I have just re-produced the article on an 'as-is' basis, hence no offense intended to anyone.

The two Ambani brothers can buy 100 percent of every company listed on the Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE) and would still be left with $30 billion to spare. The four richest Indians can buy up all goods and services produced over a year by 169 million Pakistanis and still be left with $60 billion to spare. The four richest Indians are now richer than the forty richest Chinese.

In November, Bombay Stock Exchange's benchmark Sensex flirted with 20,000 points. As a consequence, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries became a $100 billion company (the entire KSE is capitalized at $65 billion). Mukesh owns 48 percent of Reliance.

In November, comes Neeta's birthday. Neeta turned forty-four three weeks ago. Look what she got from her husband as her birthday present: A sixty-million dollar jet with a custom fitted master bedroom, bathroom with mood lighting, a sky bar, entertainment cabins, satellite television, wireless communication and a separate cabin with game
consoles. Neeta is Mukesh Ambani's wife, and Mukesh is not India's richest but the second richest.

Mukesh is now building his new home, Residence Antillia (after a mythical, phantom island somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean). At a cost of $1 billion this would be the most expensive home on the face of the planet. At 173 meters tall Mukesh's new family residence, for a family of six, will be the equivalent of a 60-storeyed building. The first six floors are reserved for parking. The seventh floor is for car servicing and maintenance. The eighth floor houses a mini-theatre. Then there's a health club, a gym and a swimming pool. Two floors are reserved for Ambani family's guests. Four floors above the guest floors are family floors all with a superb view of the Arabian Sea. On top of everything are three helipads. A staff of 600 is expected to care for the family and their family home.

In 2004, India became the 3rd most attractive foreign direct investment destination. Pakistan wasn't even in the top 25 countries. In 2004, the United Nations, the representative body of 192 sovereign member states, had requested the Election Commission of India to assist the UN in the holding elections in Al Jumhuriyah al Iraqiyah and Dowlat-e Eslami-ye Afghanestan. Why the Election Commission of India and not the Election Commission of Pakistan? After all, Islamabad is closer to Kabul than is Delhi.

Imagine, 12 percent of all American scientists are of Indian origin; 38 percent of doctors in America are Indian; 36 percent of NASA scientists are Indians; 34 percent of Microsoft employees are Indians; and 28 percent of IBM employees are Indians.

For the record: Sabeer Bhatia created and founded Hotmail. Sun Microsystems was founded by Vinod Khosla. The Intel Pentium processor, that runs 90 percent of all computers, was fathered by Vinod Dham. Rajiv Gupta co-invented Hewlett Packard's E-speak project. Four out of ten Silicon Valley start-ups are run by Indians. Bollywood produces 800 movies per year and six Indian ladies have won Miss Universe/Miss World titles over the past 10 years.

For the record: Azim Premji, the richest Muslim entrepreneur on the face of the planet, was born in Bombay and now lives in Bangalore. India now has more than three dozen billionaires; Pakistan has none (not a single dollar billionaire) .

The other amazing aspect is the rapid pace at which India is creating wealth. In 2002, Dhirubhai Ambani, Mukesh and Anil Ambani's father, left his two sons a fortune worth $2.8 billion. In 2007, their combined wealth stood at $94 billion. On 29 October 2007, as a result of the stock market rally and the appreciation of the Indian rupee, Mukesh
became the richest person in the world, with net worth climbing to US$63.2 billion (Bill Gates, the richest American, stands at around $56 billion).

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. We have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). We have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Our culture, our traditions and our cuisine are all the same. We watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians have and we don't?

He concludes the article by saying these words - INDIANS ELECT THEIR LEADERS.

Well, with elections that took place last week in Pakistan - let's hope best. Didn't the article make an interesting read? It surely did for me.

How to easily Backup your Blogger Blog Online for Free?

Yes, you can now Backup your Blog hosted on Blogger for free.

Well, it is always a good practice to Backup your online assets like e-mail, photos, etc - and blogs can't be an exception. There are numerous plugins available on other Blogging platforms like Wordpress / Mamboo (yes it is gaining popularity in blogs too) / Movable Type to backup all the contents of the blog at regular intervals. But till now there was no Free service available for blogs hosted on Blogger.com.

Today, I came across this cool website called BlogBackupr, which provides an absolutely FREE service of backing up blogs on the Blogger platform. But I suppose, since it is still in beta stage - there is no complete backup available yet. Coz only 25 posts from my site got backed up, as against the 700+ posts that are available on my blog.



BlogBackupr is an online application that only needs a URL to create the full backing of any blog using feeds. It does not require a lengthy registration but needs your e-mail address so that you have access to a panel where you can see your backups. You can download back the backups in three formats (xml, txt and html), and even restore your blog if you have any problems.



The restoration feature works fine for Wordpress blogs and surprisingly also for blogs on Blogger. Well, I guess the restoration for Blogger is a novelty and is also a unique feature, that I know of that lets you do it automatically.

It's a great tool for blogs that do not provide a system backup / restore themselves.

List of Most Frequently Pirated Softwares on the Internet

Here is the List of most pirated Softwares via the internet, much of which consisted of security tools from Symantec and productivity and design tools from Adobe – makes me really wonder if Adobe’s high price points have anything to do with them being a prime piracy target. If only software was made really affordable for individual use, I suppose piracy can be brought down a lot.

Here's the complete list.

1. McAfee VirusScan
2. Symantec Norton Anti-Virus
3. McAfee Internet Security Suite
4. Intuit TurboTax
5. Adobe Photoshop (CS / CS3 and other variants)
6. Adobe Acrobat Professional
7. Intuit Quicken Home and Business
8. Symantec Norton pcAnywhere
9. Symantec Norton Ghost
10. Adobe Creative Suite

How to download Visual Studio 2008 Professional, SQL Server 2005 from Microsoft for Free?

Yes you did hear me right!! FREE!!

Well, Microsoft has recently started a program called - DreamSpark. It is simple, it's all about giving students Microsoft professional-level developer and design tools at no charge so that they can chase their dreams and create the next big breakthrough in technology - or just get a head start in their career.

Please note that the program is open only for Students!! Also the program is open for students from the following countries only: United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Germany, France, Finland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and Belgium.

The list of softwares that they can download for free are as follows:

• Expression Studio
• Sql Server 2005 Express
• Sql Server Developer Edition
• Virtual PC 2007
• Visual Basic 2005
• Visual C++ 2005
• Visual C# 2005
• Visual J# 2005
• Visual Studio 2008 Professional
• Visual Web Developer 2005
• Visual Studio 2005 Professional
• Windows Server 2003
• XNA Game Studio

This is how you can download:

• Sign In with your Windows Live ID. If you don't have one, go get one. Pretty basic stuff.
• Get verified as a student. The system is linked to schools and organizations around the world that can confirm student status. Simply choose your country and school, enter your info and hit submit.
• Download your products. Now remember these are professional tools. This means they are pretty big files so make sure you have the bandwidth and space to bring them to your machine.

How to easily enable the Hidden Yahoo Messenger Matrix Mode in Windows Vista?

Did you know that there was a Hidden Matrix mode in Yahoo Messenger when you use it over Windows Vista? Well, even I wasn't aware of it until I recently read a report about the same at Yahoo's Blog.

Matrix mode provides the user with an easy option of dealing with all the conversation windows. It gathers them all together in a single box so you don’t have to fill your desktop with all of them. I would say Wonderful!!

Check out the screen shot below and I guess that'll summarize what I meant by the Matrix mode.

To activate Matrix Mode, start a few IM conversations and then be sure to condense them into one window as tabs. You can do that by dragging the bottom tab of one window into another, or hitting Ctrl + , (ctrl plus comma) on your keyboard. Once your conversations are in a tabbed window, hit Ctrl + Alt + Shift + b to enter Matrix Mode(Any more key combinations would have resulted in me taking my family member's help). Simply press Pressing Ctrl + Alt + Shift + b.

Hope you found this feature interesting as ever!! But sadly it works only on Windows Vista for now.

Bro DGS Dhinakaran passed away today

It is sorrowful that our beloved Brother Dr.D. G. S. Dhinakaran has passed away today. It is a big loss for us. We have lost a Godly man who prayed with tears for all of us.

WHO WILL STAND UP FOR US IN HIS PLACE? HE CAN NOT BE COMPENSATED AT ALL.

Note: Funeral service at Chennai Kilpauk Cemetry on 21.02.2008 Evening.
You can send your condolence messages to dgs@jesuscalls.org

"Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of His Saints" Psalms 116:15.


Noted Christian Preacher and Evangelist Dr. D.G.S Dinakaran passed away into Christ this morning at 6:30hrs IST in Chennai at the age of 72. He was struggling from heart and kidney ailments.

He was admitted to Appollo Hospital in Chennai on January 29. Most of his family members were at his bedside when he breathed his last. His body was taken to his residence at Jesus Calls for public homage.

Dr.Dinakaran is the founder of the Jesus Calls Ministry.

He was Born on July 1, 1935 and had a very tough life being torn by the ailments of poverty and agony of unemployment. Unable to bear these problems, he decided to put an end to his life at his 20 years of age. On his way to throw himself in front of a speeding train, he was stopped by his uncle who introduced him to Jesus Christ. He said an immediate peace overwhelmed him, and he went home with hope and a new purpose for his life.

Then he worked at a bank and ended up becoming a top executive for the company. Yet he had a heart for ministry that compelled him to start the Jesus Calls ministry.

Later, he had a vision of the Lord Jesus appearing to him, asking him to train lay people like himself to reach the people of his nation and other parts of Asia with the good news of the Gospel through radio and television ministries. He also started other ministries related to Jesus Calls ministry, wrote books, and influenced many people in all walks of life for God.

He is also the founder of Karunya Institute of Technology in Coimbatore.

He is survived by his wife & son named Dr. Paul Dinakaran, who is also a well known Christian preacher & three grand children.

How to find NIMHANS entrance test results online easily?

Well, I was trying to access the Nimhans Entrance Test results and lo - the main page of Nimhans takes an awesome 4-5 minutes to load!! and to get to the entrance test results page it took another 4 minutes!!

So, here is the direct link to the result page - http://www.nimhans.kar.nic.in/admis_results/default.htm
Guess you can save the initial 5 minutes by going directly to the result page instead.

The result page claims to have the results for the following entrance tests:

• B.Sc. in Nursing
• B.Sc. in Radiography
• Diploma in Psychiatry
• DM in Neurology
• D.M. in Neuroradiology
• M.Ch. in Neurosurgery
• M.D. in Psychiatry
• M.Phil. in Biophysics
• M.Phil. in Mental Health and Social Psychology
• M.Phil. in Neurophysiology
• M.Phil. in Neuroscience
• M.Phil. in Psychiatric Social Work
• M.Sc. in Psychiatric Nursing
• Ph.D. in Biophysics
• Ph.D. in Biostatistics
• Ph.D. in Clinical Neurosciences
• Ph.D. in Human Genetics
• Ph.D. in Mental Health and Social Psychology
• Ph.D. in Neuropathology
• Ph.D. in Neurophysiology
• Ph.D. in Neurovirology
• Ph.D. in Nursing
• Ph.D. in Psychiatric & Neurological Rehabilitation
• Ph.D. in Psychiatric Social work
• Ph.D. in Psychiatry
• Ph.D. in Psychopharma-cology
• Ph.D. in Speech Pathology & Audiology
• Post Doctoral Fellowship in Neuroanesthesia
• Post Doctoral Fellowship in Neuropathology
• Post Doctoral Fellowship in Neuroscience

How to easily find Definitions at your fingertips using Google

Looking for specific definitions online has become much much more easy. Whenever you key in a definition, the top search result leads to wikipedia, and there should be an article posted on the query. But what if you need just a two to three line short definition of the word. Well, helps' at hand.

Well, Google's glossary search was first launched as a lab project, and it restricts the index to glossaries and other resources such as WordNet and even Wikipedia. To use this option all you need to do is type "define:word," without the quotation marks and the term sought after instead of ‘word’.

So if you want to know the definiton of Jason, just type in define:jason

Hope this info helps you to better use Google.

How to easily burn a .bin / .cue / SVCD using Nero?

This morning my good friend and a regular reader of this Blog - Asif asked me how he could burn a .bin image to a CD and I went ahead explaining it - he was successful in getting the .bin burned into a CD.

Well, this post is mainly for the folks out there that seem to have constant problems burning a .bin / .cue / SVCD disk. Well, actually this post is more designed to provide a foolproof way to burn a SVCD to a disk that even the newest person can understand - but it equally works fine for those folks with other extensions like .bin or .cue.

So you must be having a disk copy program. By that I am referring to one of the many simple disk to disk programs available like Nero, cdrwin, clonecd, etc. They are the best tried softwares when it comes to copying one disk to another, however, sometimes they, or the user, might have problems when attempting the direct burn of a cue/bin to disk. So we will use the straight disk copy portion of one of these programs, along with Daemon tools to do a straight copy of the disk.

Get Daemon Tools and install it from here:
http://www.daemon-tools.com/daemon_tools.htm

This basic tool, along with WinDvd or PowerDVD, is a MUST have for ANYBODY that does SVCDs.

Daemon Tools creates a "virtual" cdrom on your PC. This new drive is available to Windows just as if it were a physical disk drive.

Daemon Tools along windvd or powerdvd, should always be used to preview your disk image(only for SVCD) before you attempt to burn a disk.

Here's how you can load your .bin / .cue / SVCD file into Daemon tools easily.

1. Right click on the icon Daemon tools installs in your tray.
2. Select Virtual CD/DVD-ROM > Device > mount image and choose your (.bin / cue) file from the file selector .
3. At this stage it is as if you had inserted a properly burned SVCD in a physical drive. You can use WinDvd or, most of the time, the latest PowerDVD (old ones won't work), to preview the disk.

Now just run Nero, or whatever disk copy tool you have, and select a standard disk copy with the virtual drive as your source(the daemon tools created CD Rom drive) and the burner as your destination. Burn the CD.

That's it - you have now burned successfully a .bin / .cue / SVCD file so easily.

Top most Firing IT companies in India

Got a mail from one of my Good friend on this topic and this is how it went.

Disclaimer : I cannot personally acknowledge that the information given in this article is 100% accurate. But most of it is true and has been acknowledged by the Indian Press too.

• IBM - Right now this is the most firing company for IT professionals. In the last 6 months, this company has fired nearly 20% of their employees because of Background checks and performance issues. This is the most insecure company from an IT professional's point of view. They don't have any strategic plans at HR policies regarding employee security. No appraisals (maximum 10%).

• TCS - Previously it was functioning as a government IT Company . Now a days TCS has also become a firing major IT company. Recently it fired on 500 people - mostly people below 2 years of experience and TCS has also lost so many projects recently( especially British Telecom Projects).
  

• Accenture - This is second top most firing company. The firing rate is around 5%. This depends upon outsourced projects; they have a unique system where Accenture development centers around the world bid for a project coming into the company. Currently Philippines centre is taking the cake and the Indian centers are in a firing mode.
  

• WIPRO - Firing people with very frequent back ground checks and firing them with out even experience letters and relieving letters (will mention as terminated from services)but will promise the employees that they will retain them. After the project is over they will fire away. Will threaten of criminal cases against such employees if they opposethe move and has also filed cases against some.
  

• Intel - Recently joined the league. Running in heavy losses, hence firing 3000 employees in the Banglore center in a phased out manner. Remember Intel made it into the headlines with the failed processor design from the Bangalore Labs and also fired a few employees for producing fake car rental bills.
  

• CTS - Has a steady firing policy (checking the Educational background and previous employment and also employee performance in work). In a Recent HCL walk-in, around 50% attendees were from this company. Sadly the I-pods have not helped them.
  

• CSC - Excellent package but fires folks in Background check and those on bench regularly. Recently fired 400+ employees from its subsidiary Covansys.
  

• Satyam - Currently stopped firing. The Attrition rate is very high. No firing from 2005 until then 1000 employees were fired in Hyderabad.
  

• Patni - They fired so many employees that currently they are facing understaffing and deficiency with number of employees. Very high attrition rate.
  

• Keane India - This USA based company is always involved in firing employees. Although they proudly say that they dont have hire and fire policy. Recently they fired java and AS400 professionals after which most of the employees have started to pack their bags. Employees change this company within 1 year.
  

So take care before accepting offers from these companies.

Secure IT companies in India

• Microsoft - Has projects till 2050.
• EDS - Most secure company in India. Not laid off any of its employees even during 2001. Has lots of projects in Defense and financial areas
• HP - Dream Company. In-house and outsourced projects
• Infosys - Dream Job. On a way to achieve the status of a secured, stable Govt. company.
• AOL, Google and Yahoo - Best companies to work with, great job satisfaction as well as great salary and work environment. Rarely fires an employee. As they are internet based companies' they offer lots of opportunities to grow.
• HCL - A good company to be in. Called as a "retirement company."
• HSBC - This is the most secure company. It has never fired any employee, even when they know that the employee is showing fake experience.
• Aricent - a communication based software company, has never fired any employee and gives great perks & incentives, lot of projects in kitty. Minimal level of attrition.
• KPIT Cumminns Infosystems Limited - This is the most secure company not known to many. It has presently acquired CG Smith, Bangalore and has lots of projects in pipe line. Acquisitions plans will continue.

Valentine's Day Viruses are out already

Though we have still one more day left for Valentine's Day - the Valentine's Viruses are already fast propagating as usual and most of them are especially from China.

Most of the Valentine's Day viruses spread through emails and on-line chat services and off late even using social networking sites like Orkut and myspace.

There is a special warning against a Valentine's Day virus named "Vbs.Valentin.A", which comes as an attachment under the guise of Valentine's blessings for Feb 14 - so better watch out for this monster(hopefully in your Spam Box). Some of the other viruses to watch out for this season include "Worm-blebla.B" and "VBS-ILoveyou".

As precaution you must exercise utmost care when opening unsolicited emails exspecially those with Spanish characters. Also, those who love Internet shopping must take care against clicking on fake discount messages from online stores which usually aids in the spreading of more such viruses.

Wish you all a very happy and virus-free Valentine's Day.

P.S: Update your anti-virus softwares and use real-time computer virus monitoring functions while surfing the Internet.

10 most commonly used Shortcuts in Google Reader

Here is the list of 10 most commonly used Shortcuts in Google Reader to improve your efficiency while reading dozens of stuff a day.

Since the official blog of Google Reader does not show the 10 most commonly used commands or shortcuts of this very popular feed reader. I thought I'll expose them for you.

Here we go:

1. j - Down to the next item.
2. n - In list mode, go to the next item without opening it.
3. k - Up to the previous item.
4. m - Mark Read / Unread.
5. t - Tag an item.
6. p - In list mode, enters the previous item without opening it.
7. shift+n - Skip to the next subscription.
8. v - Visiting the original article.
9. o - To expand / collapse element in list mode.
10. s - Add star (highlight).

Hope you find this easy and useful to use.

TCS LayOffs - Less 500 employees in a day

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - One of the world's leading information technology companies which boasts of processes like the Global Network Delivery Model™, Innovation Network, and Solution Accelerators has quietly laid-off 500 of its employees (or 1% of its total workforce). TCS has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons - last week it was on the headlines for cutting down on variable pay across the board amd now this.

Well, showing the door for 1% of its workforce for a large MNC like TCS maynot be a big issue as per the World Business Standards - but it sure is for the Indian IT Market. The cause could be easily attributed to the rising rupee vs the US dollar that has been building up the pressure on margins and revenues. Another factor that has been bothering most Indian IT companies is the signs of a slowdown in the US economy, the largest spender on IT systems and outsourcing.

TCS shrug off the layoff issue terming it as "not an exceptional thing". It says that it has an internal policy to review staff performance twice a year where staff are rated on a scale of 1 to 5. Staff with low scores( 2 or less) are either asked to re-train or are sent for counselling depending on their role. Staff who are still unable to meet the performance requirements are asked to find work elsewhere.

Just a sign of how the IT market is heading!!

Skype has a Security Hot Fix

Skype has released a new security hot fix to fix the cross-zone scripting vulnerability that led to closing access to the Metacafe and Dailymotion video sources for sharing via Skype Chat windows and mood message feature.

Also, the official Skype Blog says that the newly released update(version 3.6.0.248 ) has also fixed one major issue that I - as well as some of my reader's had reported "Frequent Skype Crashes". Issues such as the inability to answer a second call and to start video when plugging in a webcam during a call have also been resolved it seems.

You can use the Help > Check for Updates menu in Skype to check for the new update and install the same. So go ahead and update your Skype with this 22MB update as you read this article.

How to easily Strip attachments automatically in Microsoft Outlook

If you just don't have enough time in the day to sort through all your mails and file each attachment (I'm sure everyone can relate),I suggest you use this macro that strips attachments from your emails, saves them to a folder in your My Documents directory, and inserts a hyperlink pointing to the saved attachment:

Note: Before using this macro, please store all important attachments, run it on a message containing an attachment of low importance and check the macro is working properly. Use this macro at your own discretion and risk, and ensure that you do not overwrite files with the same name.

1. In your My Documents folder, create a folder named "OLAttachments"
2. In Outlook, go to Tools > Macro > Macros
3. In the Macro name box, type a name for your macro, e.g. SaveAttachments (no spaces) and click Create.
4. Paste the following code into the code window of the module:


Public Sub SaveAttachments()
Dim objOL As Outlook.Application
Dim objMsg As Outlook.MailItem 'Object
Dim objAttachments As Outlook.Attachments
Dim objSelection As Outlook.Selection
Dim i As Long
Dim lngCount As Long
Dim strFile As String
Dim strFolderpath As String
Dim strDeletedFiles As String

' Get the path to your My Documents folder
strFolderpath = CreateObject("WScript.Shell").SpecialFolders(16)

On Error Resume Next

' Instantiate an Outlook Application object.
Set objOL = CreateObject("Outlook.Application")
' Get the collection of selected objects.
Set objSelection = objOL.ActiveExplorer.Selection

' Set the Attachment folder.
strFolderpath = strFolderpath & "\OLAttachments\"

'MsgBox strFolderpath

' Check each selected item for attachments.
' If attachments exist, save them to the Temp
' folder and strip them from the item.
For Each objMsg In objSelection
' This code only strips attachments from mail items.
' If objMsg.class=olMail Then
' Get the Attachments collection of the item.
Set objAttachments = objMsg.Attachments
lngCount = objAttachments.Count

'MsgBox objAttachments.Count

If lngCount > 0 Then
' We need to use a count down loop for
' removing items from a collection. Otherwise,
' the loop counter gets confused and only every
' other item is removed.
For i = lngCount To 1 Step -1
' Save attachment before deleting from item.
' Get the file name.
strFile = objAttachments.Item(i).FileName
' Combine with the path to the Temp folder.
strFile = strFolderpath & strFile
' Save the attachment as a file.
objAttachments.Item(i).SaveAsFile strFile
' Delete the attachment.
objAttachments.Item(i).Delete
'write the save as path to a string to add to the message
'check for html and use html tags in link
If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & vbCrLf & ""
Else
strDeletedFiles = strDeletedFiles & "
" & "" & strFile & ""
End If

'MsgBox strDeletedFiles

Next i
' End If
' Adds the filename string to the message body and save it
' Check for HTML body

If objMsg.BodyFormat <> olFormatHTML Then
objMsg.Body = objMsg.Body & vbCrLf & _
"The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles
Else
objMsg.HTMLBody = objMsg.HTMLBody & "

" & _
"The file(s) were saved to " & strDeletedFiles
End If

objMsg.Save

End If
Next

ExitSub:
Set objAttachments = Nothing
Set objMsg = Nothing
Set objSelection = Nothing
Set objOL = Nothing
End Sub

5. From the File menu, click Close and return to Outlook
6. To add a button for this macro, go to View > Toolbars and select the toolbar you want to display
7. On the toolbar, click the Toolbar Options arrow, point to Toolbars and click the toolbar you want to display
8. On the toolbar, click the Toolbar Options arrow, point to Add or Remove buttons and click Customize.
9. In the Commands tab, in the categories list, click Macros
10. In the Commands list,. click the name of the SaveAttachments macro you added and drag it to the displayed toolbar
11. In the Customize dialog box, click Close
12. To use this macro, from the Messages view, select a message and
- Press Alt + F8, select the macro name and click Run OR
- Click the button you created for this macro

Jason S quits SAP Labs

Yes dear friends - I have now officially quit SAP Labs. So, I guess this sentence very much sums up why the blog wasn't updated that regularly in the last 2 months.

I had worked on some really wonderful array of technologies while at SAP for the last 2 years - ranging from SAP Enterprise Portal (EP), customization of the Enterprise Portal, a bit on ABAP, CRM Web Shop Customization (both B2B and B2C) and also extensively on SAP CRM Mobile Sales (MSA).

Well, my last project was integrating a third party tool called Strategix with the SAP CRM Mobile Sales for Shelf Management.

Well, well, I am now happy after serving 2 months notice period to get relieved from SAP!!!
Things look much brighter now as I start out my new career!!