OL2000: How to Create a Recurring E-mail Message

ID: Q239087

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Outlook 2000

SUMMARY

This article describes a method for creating a recurring reminder e-mail message.

MORE INFORMATION

Outlook does not provide a means to create recurring e-mail messages. For example, you might want to send an e-mail message every month to remind a group of people that a report is due. While you can set up appointments and tasks as recurring events, you cannot create a recurring e-mail message.

You can use Visual Basic Script and the recurrence settings of a task to automatically generate a recurring e-mail message. This procedure consists of the following tasks:

Publish a custom task form that creates an e-mail message when the task status equals completed.

Use the custom task form to create a recurring task.

When the task comes due, mark it as completed. The code will generate the boilerplate message, which you then send. At the same time, a new task is created because the original task was set to recur.

Microsoft provides programming examples for illustration only, without warranty either expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and/or fitness for a particular purpose. This article assumes that you are familiar with the programming language being demonstrated and the tools used to create and debug procedures. Microsoft support professionals can help explain the functionality of a particular procedure, but they will not modify these examples to provide added functionality or construct procedures to meet your specific needs. If you have limited programming experience, you may want to contact a Microsoft Certified Solution Provider or the Microsoft fee-based consulting line at (800) 936-5200. For more information about Microsoft Certified Solution Providers, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/mcsp/

For more information about the support options available from Microsoft, please see the following page on the World Wide Web:

http://www.microsoft.com/support/supportnet/overview/overview.asp

Publish a Custom Task Form

Start Outlook and open your Tasks folder.

On the Actions menu, click New Task.

On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and then click Design This Form.

On the Form menu, click View Code, and type the following code in the Script Editor:


Sub Item_PropertyChange(ByVal Name)
Select Case Name 
Case "Status" 
        if Item.Status = 2 then '2 = Completed 
                Set NewItem = Application.CreateItem(0)
                NewItem.To = "mshelp@microsoft.com"
                NewItem.Recipients.ResolveAll
                NewItem.Subject = "Index"
                NewItem.Body = "This is an automatic message that will retrieve an index of new Microsoft Knowledge Base articles."
                NewItem.Display 
        End IF 
End Select 
End Sub

In the Script Editor, on the File menu, click Close.

On the Tools menu, point to Forms, and then click Publish Form.

In the Look in list, click Tasks. In the Display Name and Form Name boxes, type Reminder, and then click Publish.

On the File menu, click Close. Do not save changes.

NOTE: In the code, substitute your own information inside the quotation marks for NewItem.To, NewItem.Subject, and NewItem.Body. These lines set the To, Subject, and body of your reminder message.

Create a Recurring Task Using the Custom Form

Open your Tasks folder, where you published the custom reminder form.

On the Actions menu, click New Reminder. This will open a new task based on your custom form.

Type a subject for your reminder task. In Due Date, click to select a due date from the calendar. Click to select the Reminder check box.

On the Actions menu, click Recurrence, and set how often you want the reminder message sent.

Click Save and Close.

To Send Reminder E-mail

When you receive the reminder that the task is due, click Open Item. In the Status box, click to select Completed.

-or-

Dismiss the reminder and in your Tasks list, click Completed.

Setting the task as completed will automatically generate a new task and display an e-mail message containing your boilerplate text. Click Send to send the message.

You can further automate the message. If you add the line NewItem.Send immediately below the NewItem.Display line, the message is automatically sent when you mark the task as completed.

Additional query words: OL2K reocur reocurring

Keywords :
Version : WINDOWS:2000
Platform : WINDOWS
Issue type : kbhowto