How To Get the Currently Selected Item in an Outlook Folder from Visual Basic (240935)

MORE INFORMATION

Sample

1. Start a new Standard EXE project in Visual Basic. Form1 is created by default.
2. In the Visual Basic editor environment, click the ProjectCommandBar, click References, scroll down the list of references and select "Microsoft Outlook 9.0 Object Library."
3. Add a CommandButton to Form1 and change the Name property of the CommandButton to GetSelectedItem.
4. Add the following code to the Form1 module:

   Private Sub GetSelectedItem_Click()
       ' This uses an existing instance if available (default Outlook behavior).
       Dim oApp As New Outlook.Application
       Dim oExp As Outlook.Explorer
       Dim oSel As Outlook.Selection   ' You need a selection object for getting the selection.
       Dim oItem As Object             ' You don't know the type yet.
       
       Set oExp = oApp.ActiveExplorer  ' Get the ActiveExplorer.
       Set oSel = oExp.Selection       ' Get the selection.
       
       For i = 1 To oSel.Count         ' Loop through all the currently .selected items
           Set oItem = oSel.Item(i)    ' Get a selected item.
           DisplayInfo oItem           ' Display information about it.
       Next i
   End Sub
   
   Sub DisplayInfo(oItem As Object)
       
       Dim strMessageClass As String
       Dim oAppointItem As Outlook.AppointmentItem
       Dim oContactItem As Outlook.ContactItem
       Dim oMailItem As Outlook.MailItem
       Dim oJournalItem As Outlook.JournalItem
       Dim oNoteItem As Outlook.NoteItem
       Dim oTaskItem As Outlook.TaskItem
       
       ' You need the message class to determine the type.
       strMessageClass = oItem.MessageClass
       
       If (strMessageClass = "IPM.Appointment") Then       ' Calendar Entry.
           Set oAppointItem = oItem
           MsgBox oAppointItem.Subject
           MsgBox oAppointItem.Start
       ElseIf (strMessageClass = "IPM.Contact") Then       ' Contact Entry.
           Set oContactItem = oItem
           MsgBox oContactItem.FullName
           MsgBox oContactItem.Email1Address
       ElseIf (strMessageClass = "IPM.Note") Then          ' Mail Entry.
           Set oMailItem = oItem
           MsgBox oMailItem.Subject
           MsgBox oMailItem.Body
       ElseIf (strMessageClass = "IPM.Activity") Then      ' Journal Entry.
           Set oJournalItem = oItem
           MsgBox oJournalItem.Subject
           MsgBox oJournalItem.Actions
       ElseIf (strMessageClass = "IPM.StickyNote") Then    ' Notes Entry.
           Set oNoteItem = oItem
           MsgBox oNoteItem.Subject
           MsgBox oNoteItem.Body
       ElseIf (strMessageClass = "IPM.Task") Then          ' Tasks Entry.
           Set oTaskItem = oItem
           MsgBox oTaskItem.DueDate
           MsgBox oTaskItem.PercentComplete
       End If
       
   End Sub
   					

5. Press the F5 key to run the Project.
6. Start Microsoft Outlook.
7. Select any item (or number of items) in any Outlook folder.
8. Switch back to the running Visual Basic application and click the CommandButton.
9. Note that message boxes appear that display information about the selected item or items.