Trying to ask the Right Question

[treaves04]

I am trying to write my first macro in Outlook. I have done macros before in Excel but nothing to difficult. Most of my experience is in finding others codes and putting bits of them together to accomplish my task.

In this case though, I cannot find the right terms to search to accomplish my goals. I am more than willing to keep working on this if someone would just throw me a bone and confirm that what I want to do is possible and give me some terms to search and continue learning from.

I create the same email dozens of times a week requesting bid information. I have carefully named my attachments so that they appear as "Lot - Community - Description.pdf" Only the Lot and Community ever change as all descriptions remain the same. I have 22 of these files for each "Lot - Community" Job. These 22 files are sent out in various combination to multiple contacts (all in my address book, on list) with carefully tailored subject lines (RFB - Lot - Community - Trade)/

What I would like to do is create a macro that will automatically send these emails with their attachments for me. I believe I have set everything up for the macro to simply prompt me for the Lot - Community, use the list from my address book and send these emails out. If someone would be kind enough to tell me if this is possible and some terms to look for I would greatly appreciate it. If you have done something similar and don't care to share the code I am glad to work to adapt to my needs.

I can take critisim but please be constructive. Thanks in Advance.

[treaves04]

anyone?

[BrianMH]

Yes it is certainly possible. Have you got any code together? How will you prompt to send the emails out? Does the same email go out to everyone on the list or is it a customized email for each? If it is the same email are the attachments different? How do you define which attachment goes to which contact? The best thing you could do is write down step by step your process and potentially post this so you can get more help. With the information given it is hard to know where to start.

[treaves04]

Brian: Thank you for replying. I will try to be as through as possible.


Yes it is certainly possible. Have you got any code together? No, I have nothing reliable. I have played with some code that starts the message, can fill in the body, To lines, and Subject Lines with fixed data. However, that works for the body and to lines, but not for the subject line.

How will you prompt to send the emails out? Honestly, not certain. I have no problem calling it from the macro menu.

Does the same email go out to everyone on the list or is it a customized email for each? Yes. For example, everyone on the "Plumbing" list gets the same attachments and information at the same time.

If it is the same email are the attachments different? The attachments change slightly. AS I said, I have carefully named these files trying to prepare for this. Again, in the case of my plumbing example, everyone on the list would get files: "327 CA - 8 - PLUMBING.PDF", "327 CA - 9 - PLUMBING.PDF", "!327 CA - SCANNED - PLANS.PDF" This would be for one home. Each home uses the same file structure only the portion "327 CA" changes (IE the next lot would be "328 CA - *rest of name*.pdf)

How do you define which attachment goes to which contact? I would like to imagine I have setup my directory structure in such a way as this would be simple. All the files are on a mapped network share on my server. The directory name reflects the lot / community. Again, for the example above, the directory would be "P:\SyncFolder\Dropbox\Celebration Homes Communites\Canterbury\327 CA". The next lot would be the same, just up the next lot number.

The best thing you could do is write down step by step your process and potentially post this so you can get more help. With the information given it is hard to know where to start.

I hope this help. Basically, my current process is to create a new email, manually add the address, I have a signature setup for the body of the message, and manually add the attachments to the messages. I also manually set a follow up reminder for "next week" and send it. I would like to automate this process because I do over 100 homes a year for 13 trades, so about 1300 emails that I always seem to forget a file here or there on.

My idea setup would be to run a macro that prompts me for a lot / Community code. In the case of above it would be 327 CA. From that the macro would plug that input in in to know which directory and file name to send to each mailing list.

Thanks again for the help. Again, I'm sorry for the vagueness. I appreciate any help you can provide. If you can point me to other forum post or lessons, I am glad to take the time to learn from it as well.